The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty are set to bell the day in negative terrain on Thursday, tracking weak cues from Asia and overnight losses in U.S. stocks as concerns about aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve persisted. The negative trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-down opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 41 points, or 0.23%, lower at 17,470 levels on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:30 AM. Investors will also react to first quarter GDP figures, which hit a one-year high of 13.5% in Q1 FY23, a sharp uptrend from 4.1% GDP growth in the previous quarter but lower than 20.1% growth in Q1 FY22. Another macro data showed that growth of eight core industries slowed to 4.5% in July 2022 compared with 9.9% in the same month last year. The Index of Core Industries measures combined and individual performance of production in selected eight core industries such as coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement, and electricity.
On Tuesday, the Indian equities ended on a strong note in a broad-based rally and registered a gain of more than 2.5%, following firm cues from global peers. The BSE Sensex surged 1,564 points to reclaim the 59,000 mark and closed at 59,537 levels. Similarly, the NSE Nifty added 450 points to close at 17,759. The broader market also settled with solid gains, with the Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 1.97% and 1.4%, respectively. On the sectoral front, all indices closed in green, with the bank, financial sector and realty rallying the most. The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Bajaj Finserv (5.47%), Bajaj Finance (4.86%), IndusInd Bank (4.38%), Tech Mahindra (3.96%), and ICICI Bank (3.72%).
Stocks to watch
Reliance Industries: The retail arm of conglomerate Reliance Retail, has acquired iconic soft drink brand Campa from Delhi-based Pure Drinks Group for around ₹22 crore and plans to launch the brand in Indian by October, near Diwali. The group has also acquired another soft drink brand Sosyo from Surat-based Hajoori.
IndiGo: The country’s largest airline by fleet size has entered into a codeshare partnership with British airline Virgin Atlantic under which each carrier can sell seats on other’s flights.
Tata Motors: The auto major has acquired the entire shareholding of Marcopolo S A in the joint venture entity Tata Marcopolo Motors. With this, Tata Marcopolo Motors has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors.
Biocon: The biopharma major has said the U.S. health regulator has issued Form 483s with 11 observations each for two sites in Bengaluru and six observations for a plant in Malaysia.
Cipla: The drug major has entered into an "amendment cum assignment agreement" with Kemwell India. As per the agreement, the joint venture entity will now be incorporated in the United States of America.
ONGC: The oil and gas producer has got a record third interim chairman in Rajesh Kumar Srivastava as the government has not made a full-time appointment yet. Srivastava, who is the senior-most director on the ONGC board, has been given additional charge of chairman and managing director after current acting head Alka Mittal superannuated.
Ashok Leyland: The flagship brand of the Hinduja Group has bagged orders from major fleets for 1,400 school buses in the UAE, the company's largest ever supply of school buses in this country.
Havells: Electrical goods and appliance maker has said it will invest ₹130 crore to expand washing machine production capacity at its Rajasthan's Ghiloth plant.
NTPC: The state-run power distribution company has received shareholders' approval to raise up to ₹12,000 crore through issuance of non-convertible debentures on private placement basis.
Nazara Technologies: The diversified gaming and sports media company has acquired U.S.-based children’s interactive entertainment firm WildWorks for $10.40 million shareholders in an all-cash transaction.
ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEE): The company has announced a tie-up with Disney Star under which Disney Star will licence the television broadcasting rights of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Men’s and Under 19 (U-19) global events for four years to ZEE. Disney Star will, however, continue to stream all ICC tournaments via its digital platform -- Disney+ Hotstar.
Here are the key things investors should know before the market opens today:
Wall Street extends fall
In the overnight trade, the U.S. indices ended lower for the fourth straight session amid growing concerns that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rate by another 75 basis points in its September policy meeting. The sell-off in technology stocks also injected negativity in the market after chipmakers Seagate and HP gave soft forecasts for coming quarters. The sell-off in the U.S. equities were triggered after Fed chairman Jerome Powell on Friday said that the central bank would raise rates as high as necessary to tame inflation, raising fresh concerns about the tight monetary conditions. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived 0.9%, the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.6%.
Asian shares fall on rate hike concerns
Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were floating in red in opening trade on Wednesday, following a negative finish on Wall Street overnight as concerns about Federal Reserve monetary tightening soured investors’ appetite for riskier assets. The market sentiment was further dented after Eurozone’s inflation rate hit a two-decade high, raising fear that the European Central Bank will unleash a big interest-rate increase next week.
Regional heavyweight Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.5% as the Japanese yen dropped to its lowest since 1998 amid a strong rise in U.S. Treasury yields in overnight trade. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.7% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong shed 1%. Similarly, Taiwan Weighted index plunged 1.6%, Australia’s ASX 200 declined 1.9%, and Singapore’s Straits Times was trading flat with marginal losses. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite also shed 0.3%.
Bucking the trends, markets in mainland China were trading marginally higher, with the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component rising by 0.1% each.
FIIs turn net buyers, DIIs net sellers
The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers in the Indian equity market on August 30, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) emerged as net sellers. As per the exchange data, FIIs net purchased shares worth ₹4,165.86 crore, while DIIs net offloaded stocks worth ₹656.72 crore.
Crude prices rise
Brent and U.S. crude prices fell in early trade on Thursday as increased supply and concerns about fall in global fuel demand amid slowdown in global economy weighed on market sentiments. The fresh Covid-19 restrictions in China, one of the largest consumers of oil in the world, raised worries about fuel demand.
In early Asian trading hours on Thursday, the Brent oil for October delivery was down 0.53% at $95.13 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude September futures dropped 0.46% to $89.14 a barrel.
