10 things you need to know before the opening bell

SUMMARY

Indian shares looked set to open higher on Friday, tracking gains in Asian equities, ahead of the Narendra Modi government's last Budget before the general elections. At 07:00 AM, SGX Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50's trend in India, was up by 0.53 percent at 10,912.50, pointing to a positive start for the market.

By CNBC-TV18Feb 1, 2019 8:12:01 AM IST (Updated)

1. Asia: MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1 percent after a stellar 7.2 percent gain in January. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.5 percent.

2. US: The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.06 percent to end at 24,999.67. The S&P 500 gained 0.86 percent to end at 2,704.1 points, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.37 percent to 7,281.74.

3. Markets At Close On Thursday: The BSE Sensex jumped almost 600 points to trade above 36,150 on Thursday afternoon led by strong buying in bluechips. The NSE Nifty50 also reclaimed 10,800. Both indexes surged more than a percent a day ahead of the Narendra Modi government's last budget in the 16th Lok Sabha. The street is focused on the interim budget today, which will be presented by the interim finance minister Piyush Goyal.

4. Crude Oil: US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $53.96 per barrel at 0009 GMT, up 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last settlement. In the previous session, WTI hit $55.37 a barrel, the highest since November 21, before reversing course to end lower. International Brent crude oil futures had yet to trade, after closing up 0.4 percent in the previous session.

5. Rupee: The rupee closed at 71.08, up by 4 paise against the dollar on Thursday. (Photo Credit: ANI Twitter)

6. Dollar: US dollar was down 0.6 percent so far this week against the yen at 108.85, but found some support around 108.50. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was a shade firmer on Friday at 95.558 thanks in part to a pullback in the euro to $1.1446.

7. FIIs& DIIs: Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 3,006 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,634 crore in the Indian equity market on January 31.

8. Budget 2019: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is expected to try and shore up its political support with big ticket farm giveaways and tax cuts for the middle class in its final federal budget on Friday, months before elections.

9. Budget 2019: Farmer Package:According to sources, the government seems to have finalisedfarm package which will appease the farmers. The centre is planning to announce a farm package on the lines of schemes announced by Odisha and Madhya Pradesh governments, said sources familiar with the matter.

10. India GDP Growth: The government on Thursday revised upwards the economic growth rate upwards to 7.2 percent for 2017-18 from the 6.7 percent estimated earlier. The government revised the GDP growth of FY17 to 8.2 percent from 7.1 percent earlier, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data showed.