10 things you need to know before the opening bell

SUMMARY

Indian shares are set for a mixed start on Tuesday, while Asian shares paused at a five-month peak on signs Washington and Beijing were making progress on a trade deal. At 07:30 AM, the SGX Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50's trend in India, was down 0.10 percent at 10,882, indicating a mixed start for the Sensex and the Nifty.

By CNBC-TV18Feb 26, 2019 7:33:12 AM IST (Updated)

1. Asia: MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan held near its highest since mid-September. South Korea's KOSPI was flat while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.2 percent, Reuters reported.

2. US: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 60.14 points, or 0.23 percent, to 26,091.95, the S&P 500 gained 3.44 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,796.11 and the Nasdaq Composite added 26.92 points, or 0.36 percent, to 7,554.46.

3. Markets At Close On Monday:Indian shares rose on Monday, driven by index heavyweights such as Infosys and HDFC Bank, while trade optimism after US President Donald Trump confirmed he would delay a planned tariff hike on Chinese imports also buoyed investor sentiment. The Nifty 50 closed 0.82 percent higher at 10,880.10, while the BSE Sensex added 0.95 percent at 36,213.38.

4. International Brent futures were at $64.95 a barrel at 0108 GMT, up 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close. US WTI futures fell 3.1 percent on Monday to touch $55.08 a barrel- both, the lowest since February 15, Reuters said.

5. Rupee: The rupee closed at 70.97, up by 17 paise against the dollar on Monday.

6. Dollar:The trade news was largely priced into currency markets, with the risk-on mood nudging the dollar to 111.23 against the safe-haven Japanese yen, a level not seen since late December. The greenback was last at 111.06. The dollar index was flat at 96.413 against a basket of currencies.

7. FIIs& DIIs: Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 2,134 crore on a net basis, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,746 crore on February 25.

8. FDI Inflow: The flow of foreign direct investment is dropping and may suffer its first full-year decline since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Inbound foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped 7 percent to $33.5 billion in the nine months between April and December 2018, compared with $36 billion in the year-earlier period, according to figures released over the weekend.

9. India's Q3 GDP: India's gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to be 6.7 percent in the third quarter of this financial year, which could be a deflator to the 7.2 percent estimate for FY19, the State Bank of India (SBI) said in its research report. The weak infrastructure activity, based on the previous Index of Industrial Production (IIP), is one of the key reasons for the bank to predict the 6.7 percent GDP growth rate.

10. US-China Trade War:US President Donald Trump said on Monday he may soon sign a deal to end a trade war with Chinese President Xi Jinping if their countries can bridge remaining differences, saying negotiators were "very, very close" to a deal.Trump cited progress in the talks as the reason for not raising tariffs further on Chinese goods. He also sounded a note of caution, when he said a deal "could happen fairly soon, or it might not happen at all."