10 things you need to know before the opening bell on March 2

SUMMARY

Indian market is expected to open in the green as the SGX Nifty is trading half a percent in the positive at 7:52 am. On Friday, Q3 GDP growth slowed to a 7-year low of 4.7 percent on the back of a continued slump in manufacturing and escalating coronavirus fears. Meanwhile, Dow futures point to opening gains in turbulent session as investors weigh virus impact.

By CNBC-TV18Mar 2, 2020 8:40:54 AM IST (Updated)

1. Asia: Major markets in Asia mostly declined in Monday morning trade as official Chinese manufacturing data released over the weekend came in much worse than expected. The Nikkei 225 in Japan declined 0.86 percent in early trade while stocks in Australia continued to decline on Monday morning, with the S&P/ASX 200 down more than 2.5 percent after it tumbled through last week. South Korea’s Kospi bucked the overall trend as it rose 0.53 percent. Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.07 percent lower.

2. US: The S&P 500 fell for the seventh straight day on Friday and the benchmark index suffered its biggest weekly drop since the 2008 global financial crisis on growing fears the fast-spreading coronavirus could push the economy into recession, although stocks regained some ground right at the end of a volatile session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 357.28 points, or 1.39 percent, to 25,409.36; the S&P 500 lost 24.54 points, or 0.82 percent, to 2,954.22; and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.89 points, or 0.01 percent, to 8,567.37.

3. Market At Close On Friday: Domestic stock markets settled on a sharply lower note on Friday amid a massive selloff in global equities as rising coronavirus cases outside China stoked fears of a pandemic that could dent world growth. The Nifty50 saw third-biggest 1-day fall in history. The Sensex settled 1,448.37 points, or 3.64 percent lower at 38,297.29. The broader NSE Nifty fell 431.55 points or 3.71 percent to end at 11,201.75. Meanwhile. foreign institutional investors sold Rs 1,428.74 crore in the cash market while the domestic institutional investors bought Rs 7,621.16 crore.

4. Crude Oil: US oil prices experienced their steepest weekly fall since 2008 as the spread of the coronavirus stokes fears of slowing global demand. West Texas Intermediate crude settled down 4.9 percent, to $44.76 per barrel. The most active Brent crude contract for May was down 3.2 percent, at $50.749 a barrel, a 14-month low.

5. Rupee Close: The Indian rupee plunged by 60 paise to settle at 72.21 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday, tracking heavy sell-offs in domestic equities and sustained foreign fund outflows. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 71.90 to the US dollar. During the day, it hit a low of 72.29. The domestic unit finally settled at 72.21, down 60 paise over its previous close. (Image for representational purpose)

6. Q3 GDP Growth Dips To 4.7 percent: India's economic growth slowed to a nearly 7-year low of 4.7 percent in October-December 2019 on a continued slump in manufacturing, and now faces the next big challenge of coronavirus outbreak stifling global growth. While agriculture output rose 3.5 percent versus 3.1 percent in the previous quarter, mining grew 3.2 percent versus 0.2 percent in the July-September period. Manufacturing output declined by 0.2 percent while electricity growth fell 0.7 percent compared with a 3.9 percent growth earlier. The only bright spot in the third quarter of 2019-20 fiscal was minor improvement in private final consumption expenditure, which grew 5.9 percent.

7. Finance Minister To Smoothen PFMS: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday asked civil accounts officers to focus on bringing in more efficient and adaptive technologies to further smoothen the working of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS). Speaking at a function here to mark the 44th Civil Accounts Day, she said there is so much more to be accomplished and officers need to be responsive to the changes. The minister further said the officers are not only competent accounts persons but also competent technology professionals. "Even as we are talking of technology, that itself is a challenge. Every day it changes, newer versions come in, rapid changes are happening and therefore to keep on top of it is a big exercise. You have to constantly keep changing the milepost, bring in more and more efficiency and adaptive technology," Sitharaman said.

8. Parliament Likely To Clear Cooperative Banks Bill: In a bid to address weaknesses in the cooperative banking sector, the Parliament is likely to clear a Bill to amend the Banking Regulation Act to bring multi-state cooperative banks under effective regulation of RBI during the Budget session. The proposed legislation will help prevent a repeat of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank-like crisis, sources said. There are 1,540 cooperative banks with a depositor base of 8.60 crore having total savings of about Rs 5 lakh crore. The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month gave the approval to amend Banking Regulation Act. The Bill in this regard is likely to be passed during the second leg of the Budget session starting Monday. The session ends on April 3.

9. No Decision Of Relief To Telcos: The crucial meeting of Digital Communications Commission (DCC) on Friday could not arrive at a decision on relief to the distressed telecom sector as government officials said more details are required for reconciliation of data on statutory dues. In fact, just days ahead of the Friday meeting of DCC, Vodafone Idea - which is the most vulnerable of the lot - told the government that it would not be able to pay the Supreme Court mandated Rs 53,000 crore dues. While telecom department officials insisted that DCC meeting on Friday did not focus on AGR issues but rather on project implementation for PPP on Bharat Net project, a source present at the meeting said no decision on telecom relief was taken at the meeting although discussion did take place.

10. Crude Steel Production Drops 3 percent: India's crude steel production registered a decline of 3.26 percent to 9.288 million tonnes (MT) in January this year, according to World Steel Association (worldsteel). The country had produced 9.591 MT of crude steel during the corresponding month last year, the global industry body said in its latest report. Crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the association was 154.4 million tonnes (MT) in January 2020, a 2.1 percent increase compared to January 2019, the report said. The world's largest steel producing country, China, reported a crude steel output of 84.3 MT in January, an increase of 7.2 percent compared to the year-ago period.