10 things to know before the opening bell on December 17

SUMMARY

Indian shares may open flat-to-positive Friday as global peers traded mixed. The Singapore-based SGX Nifty Futures, an early indicator of Nifty50's performance, indicated a green start for the Indian market as it surged to 17,283, up over 10 points or 0.06 percent, at 8:00 am. Among major pre-market cues today, Bank of England hiked interest rates, Nasdaq declined over 2.5 percent, and Bitcoin declined over 2.5 percent.

By CNBCTV18.comDec 17, 2021 8:20:41 AM IST (Published)

Wall Street: Tech stocks pulled Wall Street lower Thursday as investors considered moves by other global central banks such as Bank of England that became first major bank to raise interest rates. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.5 percent. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 fell nearly 0.1 and 1 percent, respectively.

Asian equities: Asian shares were mixed Friday morning following overnight losses on Wall Street. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan declined 1.8 percent. Japan's Nikkei index slipped over 0.5 percent. Chinese blue chips were down 0.4 percent. Hong Kong’s HSI rose half a percent. South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.11 percent. Elsewhere, Australian shares rose over half a percent.

D-Street: The Indian shares closed slightly higher Thursday. Sensex rose over 113 points to 57,900. And the Nifty50 index settled at 17,248, up 27 points. Midcaps and smallcaps closed over half a percent lower.

Crude oil: Oil prices rose over 2 percent Thursday boosted by Fed’s announcement, but declined marginally Friday. Brent crude declined to $74.91 and the US oil was trading at $72.20.

Rupee: The rupee posted its first rise in 7 days, rising 23 paise to 76.09 as the US dollar weakened after Fed’s announcement. Meanwhile, the dollar index fell 0.37 percent to 96.15.

Gold: Gold futures on MCX Thursday rose by Rs 500 to Rs 48,087 per 10 grams. Silver futures for delivery in March also jumped by nearly Rs 1,000 to Rs 60,208 per kilogram. Both precious metals were rising in the international market Friday, with gold rising to $1,803 and silver at $22.56 per ounce.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin declined over 2 percent to $47,000 Friday morning and appeared to be oversold, as per reports. The coin is still down 1.5 percent over the past seven days, per data from coinmarketcap.com. Altcoins outperformed the number 1 coin Thursday, though corrected slightly Friday. The number two crypto, Ether, declined slightly to trade below $4,000.

Gita Gopinath: International Monetary Fund's (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath said there should not be an under-implementation of the budget. She said while revenues have been strong in the current fiscal year, expenditures are not in line with the budget targets.