10 things you need to know before the opening bell on August 20

SUMMARY

The Indian market is likely to see a gap-down opening on Friday as the SGX Nifty was down over 200 points or 1.32 percent at 16,374.00 versus Nifty Futures' Wednesday close of 16,572.30.

By CNBCTV18.comAug 20, 2021 8:37:54 AM IST (Published)

1. Wall Street: Major indexes closed mixed on Wall Street Thursday after another choppy day of trading. The S&P 500 closed slightly higher (0.1 percent) after wobbling between gains and losses for much of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq rose 0.1 percent, while small-company stocks lost ground.

2. Asian stocks: Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Friday morning trade as investors look ahead to the release of China’s latest benchmark lending rate. The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.11 percent. Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.52 percent and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia climbed 0.1 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded fractionally higher.

3. Dalal Street: The Indian equity market remained shut Thursday on account of Muharram. On Wednesday, The Sensex ended 162.78 points or 0.29 percent lower at 55,629.49, and Nifty50 dropped 45.75 points or 0.28 percent to settle at 16,568.85.

4. Oil: Oil prices came off three-month lows Friday but were on track for a weekly decline of around 6 percent as new lockdowns in countries with low vaccination rates facing surging cases of the Delta variant dimmed the outlook for fuel demand. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for September rose 0.5 percent to $64.04 a barrel at 0115 GMT after sliding 2.7 percent on Thursday. Brent crude futures rose 0.4 percent to $66.72 a barrel after dropping 2.6 percent on Thursday to its lowest close since May.

5. Rupee: The Indian currency market was closed Thursday on account of Muharram. However, the dollar's safe-haven status and the prospect of an earlier end to Fed stimulus helped push it to a nine-month high. The dollar index rose 0.46 percent to 93.566.

6. Gold: The Indian commodity market was closed Thursday on account of Muharram. Internationally, Gold prices eased Thursday as a stronger dollar and fears over early tapering of stimulus by the US Federal Reserve weighed on sentiment, although losses for the safe-haven metal were limited by concern rising COVID-19 cases will slow global growth. Spot gold fell 0.4 percent to $1,780.81 per ounce. US gold futures fell 0.1 percent to $1,782.30.

7. Bitcoin: Bitcoin broke out of slight downtrend of the past few sessions to trade above $45,000. It was last trading nearly 6 percent higher at $47,226. Ether also rose over 7 percent to trade at $3,234.

8. India's GDP forecast: Credit rating agency India Ratings on Thursday lowered its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for the country’s economy to 9.4 percent for the current financial year from 9.6 percent.