10 things you need to know before the opening bell on June 21

SUMMARY

Indian shares are likely to open flat on Friday amid cautious trades in Asia over US-China trade tensions despite a record rally in US stocks. The S&P 500 hit an all-time high over hopes of further rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. Investors now await further progress on traded talks between the United States and China ahead of a meeting of the two leaders at the G20 summit in Japan on June 28-29. Indian benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty 50 surged over 1 percent after a volatile session. At 7.15 AM, the SGX Nifty futures traded 0.2 percent lower at 11,863, indicating a flat start for the Sensex and the Nifty 50. Here are the 10 things you need to know before the opening bell:

By CNBC-TV18Jun 21, 2019 7:52:17 AM IST (Updated)

1. Asia: Stocks in Asia were subdued in Friday morning trade. In Japan, the Nikkei was largely flat, up about 0.06 percent while the Topix index slipped 0.26 percent. Over in South Korea, the Kospi traded 0.19 percent lower at 2,127.18.

2. US: Wall Street rallied on Thursday led by the strong gains in tech and energy shares. The Dow Jones closed 249.17 points higher at 26,753.17, while the S&P 500 surged 1 percent to 2,958.06, a record close. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8 percent to end at 8,051.34.

3. Markets At Close On Friday: Indian benchmark indices recouped early losses to end higher on Thursday as gains in banking and financial stocks offset losses in IT counters triggered. The Sensex ended 488.89 points higher at 39,601.63, while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 11,831.75, higher by 140.30 points. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 438 crore on a net basis in the cash market, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,241 crore.

4. Crude Oil: Oil prices rose on Friday, with Brent crude heading for its first weekly gain in five weeks on tensions in the Middle East after Iran shot down a US military drone and on hopes for a drop in US interest rates that may stimulate global growth. Brent crude was up 39 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $64.84 a barrel by 0034 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 32 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $57.39 a barrel.

5. Currency: The rupee closed at Rs 69.44 against the US dollar, 0.34 percent lower on Thursday. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six of its peers, was at 96.615, down 1 percent on the week.

6. H-1B Visa: The Trump administration has no plans to cap H-1B work visas for nations that force foreign companies to store data locally, the State Department said on Thursday. While an administration's "Buy American Hire American" executive order calls for a broad review of U.S. worker visa programs, including the H-1B program, it was not targeted at a specific country, said the State Department spokeswoman.

7. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das: Indian economy is losing traction as the gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Q4 slumped to 5.8 percent, the Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das observed in the monetary policy committee (MPC) minutes. “There is clear evidence of economic activity losing traction, with the GDP growth in Q4:2018-19 slowing down to 5.8 percent,” Das said. “There are several uncertainties to the baseline inflation — the progress of monsoon, unexpected spikes in vegetable prices, international petroleum product prices, volatility in financial markets, and the fiscal situation,” the RBI chief added.

8. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair her first meeting of the GST Council on Friday which, among other things, would consider extending the tenure of the anti-profiteering authority by a year, setting up a single point refund system and a mechanism for businesses to issue e-invoices. The agenda of the meeting will also include integration of GST e-way bill system with NHAI's FASTag mechanism from April 1, 2020, to help track movement of goods and check GST evasion. (Photo by Arvind Yadav/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

9. Reserve Bank Of India: The Reserve Bank on Thursday said foreign exchange trading platform (FX-Retail) for retail participants is ready for rollout by the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL) on August 05. As a further facility for retail clients, the RBI said no transaction charges will be levied by the CCIL on transactions of customers if the transactions do not exceed USD 50,000 per day. The FX-Retail platform can be accessed by any customer of a bank (through the website https://www.fxretail.co.in) who has a need to purchase or sell US Dollar against the Rupee for delivery on cash basis (same day), tom basis (next day) or spot basis (two days after date of transaction).

10 RBI Data: Both bank credit and deposits slowed to 9.92 percent and 12.31 percent at Rs 96.52 lakh crore and Rs 125.40 lakh crore, respectively, for the fortnight ending June 7, according to the RBI data. In the year-ago fortnight, bank credit was at Rs 85.94 lakh crore while deposits were at Rs 114.08 lakh crore. In the previous fortnight ending May 24, advances grew 12.70 percent to Rs 96.22 lakh crore and deposits increased 10.09 percent to Rs 124.98 lakh crore.