10 things you need to know before the opening bell on August 22

SUMMARY

Indian shares are likely to open little changed on Thursday amid muted trades in global markets and after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said weak domestic economic growth prompted an unusual rate cut decision. Asian shares rose marginally following gains in US stocks on the back of strong retail results. At 7.30 am, the SGX Nifty futures traded 22 points, or 0.22 percent, lower at 10,910, pointing to a muted start for the Sensex and the Nifty 50.

By CNBC-TV18Aug 22, 2019 7:58:48 AM IST (Updated)

1. Asia: Asian shares edged ahead on Thursday after Wall Street got a boost from strong retail results, while bonds retreated as US policy makers sounded conflicted on whether to cut interest rates as sharply as markets were wagering. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.1 percent, continuing the see-saw pattern of recent sessions. Japan's Nikkei added 0.4 percent and Australian shares 0.3 percent, while E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent.

2. US: Wall Street's main indexes rose on Wednesday as upbeat earnings from retailers pointed to strength in US consumer demand, and held gains after minutes from last month's Federal Reserve meeting showed policymakers had debated a more aggressive interest rate cut. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 240.29 points, or 0.93 percent, to 26,202.73, the S&P 500 gained 23.92 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,924.43 and the Nasdaq Composite added 71.65 points, or 0.90 percent, to 8,020.21.

3. Markets at close on Wednesday: Indian shares ended lower on Wednesday, tracking losses in Asian peers, as cautious investors awaited more details from the government on curbing economic slowdown before making fresh bets. All sectors ended in red for the day with metal, banking and FMCG indices dragging the markets. The 30-share benchmark Sensex settled 268 points down, or 0.7 percent, at 37,060. The broader 50-share NSE index also ended lower at 10,919, down 98 points, or 0.9 percent.

4. Currency: The Indian rupee on Wednesday clawed back some lost ground to close at 71.55, up 16 paise against the US dollar in line with stronger emerging market currencies.

The dollar had already bounced overnight, rising to 98.263 on a basket of currencies from a low of 97.948. It also reached 106.57 yen from a trough of 106.21.

5. Crude oil: Brent crude futures climbed 27 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $60.57 a barrel by 0051 GMT on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 35 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $56.03 per barrel.

6. RBI MPC minutes: Weakening of domestic growth impulses prompted the Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das to opt for an unconventional rate cut of 35 basis points to push economic activities early this month, said the central bank on Wednesday. "In view of weakening of domestic growth impulses and unsettled global macroeconomic environment, there is a need to bolster dwindling domestic demand and support investment activity, even as the impact of past three rate cuts is gradually working its way to the real economy," said the governor, according to the minutes of the MPC released by the RBI on Wednesday.

7. Sebi eases FPI regulations: Easing the regulatory framework for foreign portfolio investors, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday simplified know your customer (KYC) requirements for them and permitted them to carry out off-market transfer of securities. The proposals were cleared by the Sebi's board during its meeting as part of efforts to simplify and expedite the registration process for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Apart from doing away with the broad-based eligibility criteria for institutional FPIs, under the new framework, FPIs would be classified into two categories instead of three.

8. Sebi approves tighter norms for companies: Amid concerns over banks citing 'client confidentiality' to resist sharing of information on delayed loan repayments and possible defaults by their borrowers, capital market regulator Sebi on Wednesday announced new norms to make it mandatory for companies to provide these details to credit rating agencies. Sebi has decided to amend its regulations for credit rating agencies to ensure that any listed or unlisted entity, before getting rated, gives an explicit consent to obtain from their lenders and other entities full details about their existing and future borrowings as also their repayment and delay or default of any nature and provide the same to the rating agencies.

9. Mobile data prices down: Prices of mobile data have fallen drastically by about 95 percent to Rs 11.78 per gigabyte (GB) but cumulative revenue of telecom operators has risen by around 2.5 times to Rs 54,671 crore in the last five years, a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) report said on Wednesday. The data usage in the country increased by 56 folds to 46,404 million GB in 2018 from 828 million GB in 2014 with average data consumption in the country growing multi-fold to 7.6 GB per subscriber from 0.27 GB per subscriber during the same period, Trai said in the report. (Representational Image)

10. PSU banks meeting begins: Public sector banks will embark on second round of two-day bottom-up ideation exercise beginning Thursday for further streamlining the banking sector to help the nation become a $5 trillion economy in five years. The second leg of the month-long campaign will be inter-bank and will be held at state-level as per the direction of Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance. The first round was focused at branch level and suggestions and ideas received from there will now be discussed at the state level from tomorrow, official sources said. Meetings will be held at 30 places, mostly in the state capitals, and will see participation from middle level management.