10 things you need to know before opening bell on March 3

SUMMARY

Indian indices are likely to open in the green on Wednesday tracking gains in Asian peers on optimism that US stimulus will energise the global economic recovery. The SGX Nifty was also trading marginally higher, up around 0.2 percent over 15,000 suggesting an opening in the positive territory for the Indian market today.

By CNBCTV18.comMar 3, 2021 8:15:31 AM IST (Updated)

1. Wall Street: Stocks closed lower on Wall Street after a wobbly day, giving back some of their big gains from a day earlier. The S&P 500 fell 31.53 points, or 0.8 percent, to 3,870.29. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 143.99 points, or 0.5 percent, to 31,391.52. The Nasdaq fell 230.04 points, or 1.7 percent, to 13,358.79.

2. Asian Stocks: Stocks in Asia-Pacific were lackluster on Wednesday morning but shares in Australia advanced after the country released fourth-quarter GDP data that beat expectations. The S&P/ASX 200 edged about 0.67 percent higher. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 and Topix index dipped fractionally. South Korea’s Kospi also hovered near the flatline. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.2 percent higher.

3. D-Street: Gains in Auto and IT stocks helped Indian shares rise for a second straight session on Tuesday, with the Sensex crossing the 50,000 mark again as some semblance of calm returned to global bond markets after last week's turmoil. The Sensex ended 447. 05 points higher at 50,296 while the Nifty rose 157.7 points to settle at 14,919. Broader markets also surged during the day with the midcap and smallcap indices up 1.7 and 1.2 percent, respectively.

4. Oil:Oil prices fell to their lowest in two weeks on Tuesday on expectations OPEC+ producers will ease supply curbs at their meeting later this week as economies start to recover from the coronavirus crisis. Brent futures fell 99 cents, or 1.6 percent, to settle at $62.70 a barrel, their lowest close since Feb. 12. The global benchmark has fallen about 7 percent from a 13-month peak hit last week. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 89 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $59.75, its lowest close since Feb. 19. WTI has dropped about 6 percent since Feb. 25 when it closed at its highest since May 2019.

5. Rupee: The rupee rose by 18 paise to close at 73.37 against the US dollar on Tuesday, ending its three-day losing streak on the back of gains in domestic equities amid improving risk appetite. Dollar demand eased after a pullback in crude oil and bond yields which supported the rupee sentiment, analysts said. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 73.32 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.31 and a low of 73.48. It finally ended at 73.37 against the American currency, registering a rise of 18 paise over its previous closing.

6. Gold: Gold prices on Tuesday tumbled Rs 679 to Rs 44,760 per 10 grams in the national capital, due to bleak international market trend and rupee appreciation, according to HDFC Securities. The precious metal had closed at Rs 45,439 per 10 grams in the previous close. Silver also crashed by Rs 1,847 to Rs 67,073 per kg from the closing of Rs 68,920 per kg in the previous day trade.

7. Spectrum Auction: Telecom major Reliance Jio on Tuesday acquired the maximum spectrum, i.e. 488.35 MHz across three circles, for Rs 57,122.65 crore in the latest round of auction. Bharti Airtel had acquired 355.45 MHz spectrum across Sub-GHz, mid-band and 2300 MHz bands, for Rs 18,699 crore. Vodafone Idea spent Rs 1993.40 crore for 11.8 MHz spectrum across five circles.

8. Hurun's Global Rich List: India added 55 new billionaires in the pandemic-stricken 2020 to take the total to 177 billionaires residing in India, whereas the number of Indian origin billionaires rose to 209, a report said on Tuesday.

9. RBI: RBI governor Shaktikanta Das expressed optimism about the overall COVID-19 situation following the rollout of the vaccines and complimented all the SAARC central banks for their efforts in combating the pandemic, the central bank said in a statement on Tuesday.

10. SEBI: SEBI met with the exchanges and their clearing corporations on Monday to analyse the NSE trading halt on February 24. The objective of the meeting was to look into the reasons behind the outage and try to minimise the recurrence of such incidents in the future. SEBI also discussed the point of interoperability, which exists between exchanges and clearing houses of both exchanges. For more, click.