10 things you need to know before the opening bell on March 22

SUMMARY

The Indian market is likely to open flat on Monday amid mixed global cues. At 7:35 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 2.50 points or 0.02 percent higher at 14,749.50, indicating a flat start for the Sensex and Nifty50.

By CNBC-TV18Mar 22, 2021 7:50:47 AM IST (Published)

1. Wall Street | The Nasdaq ended higher on Friday, lifted by Facebook and energy shares, while the S&P 500 lost ground as US Treasury yields took a break from a recent surge. Reversing a recent trend, so-called growth stocks mostly outperformed value stocks viewed as likely to benefit most as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.71 percent to end at 32,627.97 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.06 percent to 3,913.1. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.76 percent to 13,215.24.

2. Asian stocks | Asian markets were holding their nerve on Monday as a plunge in the Turkish lira tested risk appetite, with stocks and bonds showing only a limited bid for safe-havens. After an initial wobble, sentiment seemed to stabilise and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was all but flat. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.4 percent, not helped by talk Japanese retail investors could face losses on large long positions in the high-yielding lira.

3. Indian market on Friday | The Indian equity market ended Friday’s volatile session higher led by across-the-board gains. The Sensex gained 641.72 points, or 1.30 percent to end at 49,858.24, while the Nifty closed 186.15 points, or 1.28 percent higher at 14,744.00. Broader indices rebounded with the Nifty Midcap100 closing over 1 percent higher. Barring Nifty Realty, all sectors ended in the green led by FMCG, metals and pharma indices.

4. Crude oil | Oil prices resumed their decline on Monday, falling around 1% as worries about a drop in demand for fuel products in the wake of yet more European lockdowns dominated trading. Brent crude was down 60 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $63.93 a barrel. US oil was off by 68 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $60.74 a barrel. Both contracts fell by more than 6 percent last week.

5. Rupee | The rupee ended on a flat note against the US dollar on Friday as a stronger dollar offset gain from weak crude oil prices and FII inflows. A firm trend in domestic equity markets also supported the rupee. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened lower at 72.57 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 72.46 and a low of 72.58. It finally closed at 72.52 against the American currency, registering a rise of just 1 paisa over its previous close. The rupee had ended at 72.53 against the US dollar on Thursday.

6. IMF|The No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund on Saturday pointed to emerging signs of a stronger global economic recovery, but warned that significant risks remained, including the emergence of mutations of the coronavirus, a Reuters report said. IMF First Deputy Managing Director Geoffrey Okamoto said that in early April the Fund would update its January forecast for global growth of 5.5 percent to reflect additional fiscal stimulus spending in the United States, but gave no details.

7. Time to consider allowing Sensex, Nifty trading on all bourses, says RBI | Against the backdrop of a nearly four-hour outage at the National Stock Exchange last month, an RBI article on Friday suggested allowing trading of benchmarks Nifty and Sensex on all stock exchanges. "Allowing the benchmarks Nifty and Sensex to trade on all the stock exchanges, extension of interoperability to include usage of trading infrastructure of another exchange and allowing entry of more exchanges to increase competition may need to be considered, besides focusing on strengthening of risk management frameworks at the exchanges," it said.

8. Household debt soars to 37.1% of GDP, savings plunge 10.4% in Q2 | The year-long pandemic left households more indebted, which has sharply jumped to 37.1 percent of GDP in Q2 of FY21, while their savings rate plunged to a low 10.4 percent, according to latest data from the Reserve Bank, PTI reported. The household savings plunged as the pandemic has led to tens of millions losing jobs and almost all forced to take deep pay-cuts, forcing them to borrow more or dip into their savings to meet expenses. This has the share of households in the overall credit market jumping to 51.5 percent in Q2, up by 130 bps year-on-year.

9. FPIs net buyers at Rs 8,642 crore in March so far | Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have invested a net sum of Rs 8,642 crore in Indian markets so far in March. According to depositories data, FPIs poured in Rs 14,202 crore into equities but pulled out Rs 5,560 crore from debt segment between March 1-19. This took the total net investment to Rs 8,642 crore.

10. Gold imports slip 3.3% to USD 26.11 bln in Apr-Feb | Gold imports fell 3.3 percent to USD 26.11 billion during April-February 2020-21, according to the commerce ministry data. Imports of the yellow metal stood at USD 27 billion in April-February 2019-20. The decline in gold imports has helped in narrowing the country’s trade deficit to USD 84.62 billion during the 11-month of the current fiscal, as against USD 151.37 billion a year ago.