Stock Market Today: Top 10 things to know before the market opens
The Indian equity benchmarks are expected to open flat or marginally lower today as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a mildly negative start for the broader index with a loss of 14 points after the Nifty closed 121 points lower at 17,706 on Monday. SGX futures stood at 17,760.
The BSE Sensex in the previous session lost 520 points to close at 59,910, while the Nifty50 closed 121 points lower at 17,706, in a sell-off led by the IT stocks.
Nifty50 is still trading comfortably higher than its 200-day moving average of 17,320 and will try to consolidate on the recent momentum.
The pivot charts indicate that the Nifty may get support at 17,604, followed by 17,536 and 17,426.
If the index advances, 17,825 is the initial key resistance level to watch out for, followed by 17,893 and 18,004.
Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in the currency and equity markets today.
We have collated a list of important headlines across news platforms which could impact Indian as well as international markets:
SGX Nifty
SGX Nifty indicate a mildly negative start for the broader index with a loss of 14 points after the Nifty closed 121 points lower at 17,706 on Monday. SGX futures stood at 17,760.
US Markets
US stock futures traded flat on Monday after the major averages rose to kick off a stacked week of corporate earnings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures and S&P 500 futures were little changed. Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.03 percent.
Stocks finished higher during the regular trading session Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 100.71 points, or 0.3 percent. The S&P 500 gained 0.33 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.28 percent.
European Markets
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed flat, erasing slight gains from earlier in the session.
Travel and leisure stocks were up 1.5 percent, while mining stocks gained 1 percent. Insurance fell 1.5 percent and financial services dropped 2.1 percent.
The FTSE100 rose 0.10 percent to close at 7879. DAX closed 0.11 percent lower at 15,789.53 whereas CAC 40 closed flat at 7,498. Attention will also be on China’s gross domestic product report on Tuesday and U.K. CPI numbers on Wednesday.
Asian markets
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Tuesday as Wall Street’s earnings season continues and investors await a slew of economic data out of China, most notably, its first quarter gross domestic product.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 opened 0.22 percent down, while South Korea’s Kospi and Kosdaq were also down fractionally. In contrast, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up marginally and the Topix was 0.26 percent higher.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also pointed to a lower open, with futures standing at 20,675 compared to the index’s last close of 20,782.45.
Cement demand seen rising 8-9% in FY24 over 9% growth in FY23
Continued government push to build infrastructure will drive cement demand further this fiscal by 8-9 percent on top of a 9 percent growth in FY22, which will help the sector see some recovery in profitability, a report said.
Wholesale inflation drops to 1.34% in March, lowest in 29 months
India’s wholesale inflation cooled further in March to 1.34 percent, according to data released on April 17 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The latest Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation figure is the lowest in 29 months.
WPI inflation had come in at 3.85 percent in February and 14.63 percent in March 2022.
Oil drops 2% on higher dollar, interest rate concerns
Oil prices turned lower on Monday as the U.S. dollar strengthened and as investors mulled over a possible May interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which could dampen economic recovery hopes.
Brent crude futures settled lower by 1.8 percent at $84.76 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 2.05 percent to $80.83 a barrel. Both contracts notched their fourth weekly gain in a row last week, the longest such streak since mid-2022.
Dollar
The US dollar has been strengthening alongside interest rate hikes, making dollar-denominated oil more expensive for holders of other currencies.
The dollar index gained around 0.5 percent on Monday to trade at 101.835. Whereas the price of 1 dollar hovered near 81.99 India Rupee.
Gold slides below $2,000, market eyes Fed rate hike cues
Gold reversed course to slip below the key $2,000 level on Monday, pressured by a stronger dollar and higher Treasury yields, while investors looked for cues on whether the market will see a ‘one and done’ rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in May.
Spot gold was down 0.4 percent at $1,995.80 per ounce by 3:38 p.m. EDT (14:30 GMT) after rising as much as 0.6 percent earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures fell 0.44 percent to $2,007.
FII and DII
Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 533.20 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth Rs 269.65 crore on April 17, National Stock Exchange’s provisional data showed.
ByMoneycontrol
