A strong double-digit net profit growth is expected from Titan on Thursday

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is up by 98 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific traded mixed on Thursday as investors digested the U.S. Federal Reserve’s smaller rate hike of 25 basis points and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged inflation is falling The Japanese Nikkei is up by 0.30 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up by 0.61 percent and South Korea’s Kospi is up by 0.31 percent in early morning deals.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed sharply higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that inflation was starting to ease, in remarks he made following a quarter-point rate hike by the U.S. central bank. The S&P 500 gained 1.05 percent and Nasdaq Composite added 2.00 percent respectively.

Stocks News:

?Adani Enterprises Ltd unexpectedly called off its ₹20,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO) on Wednesday evening, a day after the company closed the offer successfully. decision followed a 28.5% plunge in its shares in Wednesday trade that resulted in the stock trading at 31.6% below the lower end of the FPO price band of ₹3,112-3,276 apiece.

?Titan will release earnings on Thursday, is expected to repot strong double-digit growth in net profit for the quarter ended December on the back of broad-based performance across business segments.

?Eicher Motor’s total commercial vehicle sales in January rose 32% on year to 7,181 units, with those of trucks and buses seeing a sharp 50% growth in the domestic market. Sales of Royal Enfield motorcycles jumped 27% higher to 74,746 units.

?TATA Motors total domestic sales in January rose 10% on year to 79,681 units, driven by strong demand for passenger vehicles. Domestic passenger vehicle sales surged 18% on year.

?Foreign institutional investors (FII) have net-bought shares worth Rs 1,785.21 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) have net-purchased shares worth Rs 529.47 crore on February 1, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Domestic and International Events

• America’s Federal Reserve slowed its pace of interest rate hikes Wednesday, tempering an aggressive campaign to rein in costs as inflation cools while signalling the battle is not yet over. The US central bank announced a quarter-point hike to the benchmark lending rate at the end of its two-day policy meeting, taking the rate to a target range of 4.50-4.75 percent.
• Domestic production has been given a fresh fillip in Budget 2022-23. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has chosen to announce customs duty cuts on a number of items to protect local production.
• The Union Budget 2023-24 announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 has allocated Rs 30,000 crore for capital support to state-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
• South Korea’s economy inched toward its first recession in three years as data on Wednesday showed its January trade deficit soared to a record thanks to a plunge in exports caused by a combination of long holidays and cooling global demand.

Key Equity Indices