SGX Nifty up 30 points; here's what changed for market while you were sleeping

Domestic stocks look set to open higher, shrugging off weak cues from other Asian markets. But, technical charts for the key indices look unconvincing after a four-day rally, and some weakness later in the session cannot be ruled out. US stocks settled mostly lower overnight. All eyes will be on Zomato and the Tatva Chintan Pharma IPO, which opens today.

Here's breaking down the pre-market actions:

STATE OF THE MARKETS

SGX Nifty signals a positive start
Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange traded 32.5 points, or 0.20 per cent, higher at 15,954, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Friday.

• Tech View: Nifty50 on Thursday closed above the 15,900 level for the first time and broke above its consolidation range of 15,600-15,900 after 22 sessions. Analysts said a breakout like this should ideally push the index to 16,200-16,400 zone in the coming days, but certain technical indicators are raising questions over the strength of the breakout.
• India VIX: The fear gauge eased 3 per cent to 12.27 level on Thursday over its close at 12.59 on Wednesday.

Asian markets fall in early trade
Asian share markets opened lower on Friday after a mixed close on Wall Street, with investors cautious amid expanding virus infections. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 0.54 per cent.

• Japan's Nikkei tanked 1.14%
• Korea’s Kospi declined 0.68%
• Australia's ASX 200 retreated 0.05%
• China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.25%
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.48%

US stocks settle mostly lower
Wall Street stocks mostly fell on Thursday despite strong corporate results, with analysts pointing to profit-taking after major indices hit records in anticipation of earnings season. The Nasdaq ended lower on Thursday, pulled down by Apple, Amazon and other Big Tech companies.

• Dow Jones added 0.15% to 34,987.02
• S&P 500 shed 0.33% to 4,360.03
• Nasdaq declined 0.7% to 14,543.13

Dollar on course for weekly gain
The dollar headed on Friday for its best weekly gain in about a month, supported by buying on investor worries about quicker US interest rate increases and by rising virus infections.

• Dollar index flat at 92.604
• Euro declined to $1.1808
• Pound slipped to $1.3832.
• Yen steady at 109.98 per dollar
• Yuan rises to 6.4678 against the dollar

Crude oil prices fall for 3rd day
Oil prices fell a third day on Friday as supply concerns continued to haunt the market, with OPEC likely to add more barrels amid expectations that demand is returning as more countries recover from the pandemic. Brent crude was down 20 cents, or 0.3 per cent, at $73.27 a barrel and is heading for a 3 per cent decline this week after two days of heavy declines. US crude fell 12 cents, 0.2 per cent, to $71.53 a barrel, and is on track for a decline of about 4 per cent this week.

FPIs sell shares worth Rs 265 cr
Net-net, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned sellers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 264.77 crore, data available with NSE suggested. DIIs, turned buyers to the tune of Rs 439.41 crore, data suggests.

June quarter earnings
HDFC Asset Management Company, L&T Finance Holdings, Just Dial, Den Networks, GNA Axles, Quint Digital Media, Smruthi Organics and Amal are among the companies that will announce quarterly earnings today.

MONEY MARKETS

Rupee: The rupee pared some of its initial gains to settle 5 paise higher at 74.54 against the US dollar on Thursday amid a firm trend in domestic equities.

10-year bond: India 10-year bond yield jumped 0.13 per cent to 6.12 after trading in 6.10 - 6.12 range.

Call rates: The overnight call money rate weighted average stood at 3.21 per cent, according to RBI data. It moved in a range of 1.90-3.40 per cent.

DATA/EVENTS TO WATCH

• Q1 Earnings: HDFC AMC | Den | Just Dial | L&T Finance
• India Loan/Deposit Growth YoY July/02 (05:00 pm)
• India Foreign Exchange Reserves 09/July (05:00 pm)
• India Passenger Vehicles Sales MoM June
• BoJ Interest Rate Decision (08:30 am)
• BoJ Quarterly Outlook Report (08:30 am)
• EU New Car Registrations YoY June (11:30 am)
• EA Balance of Trade May (02:30 pm)
• EA Core Inflation Rate YoY Final June (02:30 pm)
• US Retail Sales Ex Autos MoM June (06:00 pm)

MACROS

Rangarajan says RBI must support growth
India’s monetary policy makers need to support economic growth even at the cost of their inflation-fighting credentials, as tackling the pandemic situation requires extraordinary measures, a former central bank governor said. The government’s large borrowing plan and RBI’s willingness to support it are bound to fan inflation, Chakravarthy Rangarajan, who headed the RBI during 1992-97, said in an interview. What the central bank should be worried about is how high the inflation goes up, he said.


Centre seeks iBankers for LIC IPO
The Centre on Thursday invited bids for appointing merchant bankers, advisers and a legal firm for the proposed initial public offer for state-run insurance behemoth LIC, initiating the process for the mega listing. The government aims to list LIC by the last quarter of the current financial year, said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary, department of investment and public asset management (Dipam). The Cabinet last week approved LIC’s IPO, which is set to be the biggest and several estimates show that it could raise between Rs 90,000 crore and Rs 1 lakh crore.

Ajay Singh readies Air India bid
SpiceJet's Ajay Singh is putting together a $1 billion war chest for his Air India bid, which will be made through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that’s likely to include participation from two US-based funds, according to people briefed on the matter. Singh didn’t respond to queries. The SpiceJet promoter will use a combination of his shares in the listed company and equity that will be allocated to him as part of a planned hive-off of his airline’s cargo business as security to raise about $300 million

RBI may not raise rates soon
RBI is likely to resist the pressure mounted by seemingly stubborn inflation prints and refrain from raising rates anytime soon, assessing that even a near-double-digit expansion of the economy in FY22 will still leave sufficient headroom for further growth without triggering a price spiral. “The pick-up in inflation is driven largely by adverse supply shocks due to disruptions caused by the pandemic, including increases in margins and taxes,” said an RBI study anchored by Deputy Governor Michael Patra.

RBL, YES seek alternatives to Mastercard
RBL Bank and YES Bank, with exclusive alliances with Mastercard, are already scouting alternative partners such as Visa and RuPay to expand their respective card businesses after RBI late Wednesday prevented the US payments facilitator from signing on new customers for alleged noncompliance with data storage rules. While RBL Bank had signed up with Visa last week, a YES Bank spokesperson said the lender is evaluating migration to other platforms.