Stock Market Today: Top 10 things to know before the market opens today
The market is expected to open in the green as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 68 points on Monday.
The BSE Sensex jumped 900 points to 59,809, while the Nifty50 spiked 272 points to 17,594 and formed a long bullish candlestick pattern on the daily charts with above average volumes at the close last Friday.
As per the pivot charts, the Nifty has support at 17,473, followed by 17,421 and 17,338.
If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 17,639, followed by 17,690 and 17,773.
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:
US Markets
Wall Street rallied on Friday to end a volatile week, as US Treasury yields eased and economic data helped investors look past the growing likelihood that the Federal Reserve will have to keep its restrictive policy in place until late in the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 387.4 points, or 1.17 percent, to 33,390.97, the S&P 500 gained 64.29 points, or 1.61 percent, to 4,045.64 and the Nasdaq Composite added 226.02 points, or 1.97 percent, to 11,689.01.
Asian Markets
Asian shares edged up on Monday while bond markets held their breath ahead of an update on the US rate outlook from the world’s most powerful central banker, and a jobs report that could decide if the next hike needs to be super-sized.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 percent, after bouncing 1.5 percent last week. Japan’s Nikkei climbed 1.0 percent to a three-month top, while South Korean stocks added 0.6 percent helped by a softer reading on inflation.
SGX Nifty
Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 68 points.
The Nifty futures were trading around 17,700 levels on the Singaporean exchange.
Centre slashes windfall tax on diesel, removes it on ATF
The Centre, in the latest review, has hiked the windfall profit tax levied on crude petroleum to Rs 4,400 per tonne from Rs 4,350.
The special additional excise duty on diesel has been reduced to Rs 0.5 a litre from Rs 2.5, while it has been slashed to nil on ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel).
Petrol continues to have zero special additional excise duty.
The windfall profit tax on domestically produced crude oil and export of fuel is likely to give about Rs 25,000 crore in the current fiscal ending March 31.
The Centre had first imposed taxes on windfall profits of energy companies on July 1, 2022, in the wake of soaring prices of crude oil.
It had imposed export duties of Rs 6 per litre on petrol and ATF and ₹13 a litre on diesel.
China sets modest growth target of about 5% as parliament opens
China set a modest target for economic growth this year of around 5 percent on Sunday as it kicked off the annual session of its National People’s Congress (NPC), which is poised to implement the biggest government shake-up in a decade.
The economy gave one of its weakest performances in decades last year, when gross domestic product (GDP) grew by just 3 percent, squeezed by three years of Covid controls, a crisis in the vast property sector and a crackdown on private enterprise.
This year’s growth target is at the low end of expectations, as policy sources had recently told Reuters a range as high as 6 percent could be set. It is also below last year’s target of around 5.5 percent.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 246.24 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased shares worth Rs 2,089.92 crore on March 3, the National Stock Exchange’s provisional data showed.
ECB Half-Point March Rate Hike Very Likely, Lagarde Says
European Central Bank is set to raise borrowing costs by another half point at its March decision, according to President Christine Lagarde.
“It is very likely that we will raise interest rates by 50 basis points,” Lagarde told El Correo when asked what would happen later this month.
“This was a decision that was indicated at our last monetary policy meeting and all the numbers we have been seeing in recent days are confirming that this interest rate hike is very, very likely.”
A move of that size would take the ECB’s rate increases since July to 350 basis points.
What happens beyond March 16, is less certain.
Oil rises by $1 per bbl after denial of reported UAE plan to exit OPEC
Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel on Friday, recovering from an early slump after Reuters reported that the United Arab Emirates is not planning an exit from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Brent crude futures were up $1.01, or 1.2 percent, to $85.76 a barrel by 1:52pm EST (1852 GMT).
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained $1.38, or 1.8 percent, to $79.54.
Gold eases on firmer dollar, rate-hike fears
Gold prices ticked lower on Monday in the international markets as the dollar firmed, with a fresh set of data cementing fears that central banks across the globe would keep raising rates to contain sticky inflation.
Spot gold was down 0.1 percent at $1,853.19 per ounce, as of 0037 GMT, after climbing to its highest since February 15 on Friday.
US gold futures rose 0.3 percent to $1,859.60.
Bitcoin falls 5.2% to $22,253
Bitcoin dropped 5.2 percent to $22,253 at 2204 GMT on Friday, losing $1,213 from its previous close.
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is down 11.9% from the year’s high of $25,270 on Feb. 16.
Ether , the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, dropped 5.3 percent to $1,560.9 on Friday, losing $87.1 from its previous close.
ByMoneycontrol
