10 things you need to know before the opening bell on August 31

SUMMARY

Indian shares are likely to open lower on Tuesday following a mixed trend in Asian peers. The trends on SGX Nifty also indicate a flat to a lower start for the broader index in India. The Nifty futures were trading 24.70 points or 0.15 percent lower at the 16,927.00 level on the Singaporean Exchange at 8:05 am.

By CNBCTV18.comAug 31, 2021 8:23:17 AM IST (Published)

1. Wall Street: Stocks wound up mixed on Wall Street Monday, with the S&P 500 index rising 0.4 percent mark another record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2 percent. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.9 percent.

2. Asian stocks:Shares in Asia-Pacific mostly slipped in Tuesday morning trade, as data showed slowing Chinese factory activity growth in August. In mainland China, the Shanghai composite fell 0.28 percent. Hong Kong’s broader Hang Seng index dropped 0.5 percent. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 shed 0.1 percent. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.15 percent. Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia outperformed as it edged 0.17 percent higher. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.33 percent lower.

3. D-Street:Indian equity benchmarks began the week with a bang tracking gains across global shares as the Federal Reserve Chairman struck a more dovish tone than some investors had expected in his Jackson Hole speech. Both indices Sensex and Nifty50 soared to all-time highs during the session. The 30-scrip index rose 765.04 points to end at 56,889.76, and the broader Nifty50 gauge climbed up 225.85 points to settle at 16,931.05 -- both record closing highs.

4. Crude oil: Oil prices edged higher but were off a four-week high as Hurricane Ida weakened into a Category 1 hurricane within 12 hours of coming ashore as a Category 4. Oil prices rose, with Brent crude finishing up at $73.41 a barrel after touching four-week highs. They rose more than 11 percent last week in anticipation of disruptions to oil production from Hurricane Ida. US oil rose to $69.21 a barrel, having jumped a little more than 10 percent over the last week.

5. Gold: Gold Monday dipped Rs 367 to Rs 47,538 per 10 gram amid a correction in global precious metal prices along with rupee appreciation. Silver also dipped Rs 415 to Rs 64,063 per kilogram. In the international market, gold was trading lower at USD 1,814 per ounce and silver was flat at USD 23.99 per ounce.

6. Rupee:The rupee surged by 40 paise to close at more than two-month high of 73.29 against the US dollar on Monday following dovish comments by the US Federal Reserve chairman on interest rates. Meanwhile, the dollar index was trading unchanged at 92.68.

7. Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin traded in the red Monday at around $48,000 and analyst expect it to trade range-bound heading as the investors show preference for altcoins. It was last trading over 3 percent down at $46,952 – down almost 5 percent for the week. Ether was trading marginally up at $3,214, it is also down 3 percent for the week.

8. India GDP: The government is scheduled to release the GDP print for Q1FY22 on August 31, 2021. Due to the national lockdown last year, GDP had contracted by nearly 24 percent and because of that low base effect, a CNBC-TV18 Poll is pegging growth this year at nearly 20 percent.

9. Business resumption activity: Business resumption activity continued its northward journey and reached a new high, much above the pre-pandemic levels for the week ended August 29, a Japanese brokerage said on August 30. The Nomura India Business Resumption Index rose to 102.7 for the week ending August 29 from 101.3 in the prior week, as per the brokerage.

10. Amazon-Future Group tussle: US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to Sebi requesting the market regulator to direct stock exchanges to withdraw the 'Observation Letters' that were issued related to the proposed Rs 24,713-crore Future-Reliance deal. The company has also urged Sebi to take necessary action to comply with the recent Supreme Court judgment related to the deal.