Indigo co-promoter will sell her 4 percent stake.

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is up by 42.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.

Asia Pacific markets traded higher on Thursday as investors digested Japan’s record trade deficit of $26 billion according to Refinitiv data that dates back to March 2006. Investors also digested a stronger than expected US retail sales report from Wall Street. The Japanese Nikkei is up by 0.70 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down by 1.74 percent and South Korea’s Kospi is down by 1.67 percent in early morning deals.

The S&P 500 ended higher on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected retail sales data offered evidence of resilience in the U.S. economy, but gains were capped as investors worried about more interest rate hikes by Federal Reserve in the months ahead. The S&P 500 gained 0.28 percent and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.92 percent respectively.

Stocks News:

?Indigo co-promoter will sell her 4 percent stake in the aviation company via a block deal. Reportedly, the block deal has been launched for 1.56 crore shares. The total deal size is worth Rs 2,930 crore.

?Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers has signed non-binding MoUs with 9 companies including Aerospace Engineers, Dynatron, Keltron, Naval Group (France), Rolls-Royce Solutions GmbH, and Tunga Aerospace Industries, for segments like ship repair, commercial shipbuilding, ship-based drones, autonomous underwater vehicles and allied systems etc.

?Ramco Systems has signed digital transformation deal to automate and optimize business operations across the Philippine Airlines Group network.

?Nestle will announce its fourth quarter results today. The company, which follows a January to December calendar year, is expected to report high mid to high single digits volume growth in the fourth quarter ended December, while EBITDA margins are seen to be contracting.

?Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 432.15 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased shares worth Rs 516.64 crore on February 15, NSE’s provisional data showed.

Domestic and International Events

• India’s trade deficit in January sank to its lowest in a year at $17.75 billion but exports, too, contracted 6.58 percent during the month, hit by a slump in global demand.
• US retail sales increased by the most in nearly two years in January after two straight monthly declines as Americans boosted purchases of motor vehicles and other goods, pointing to the economy’s continued resilience despite higher borrowing costs.
• Production at US factories rebounded in January, but output in the prior month was much weaker than initially thought amid higher borrowing costs that are hurting the manufacturing sector.
• Oil futures were flat to lower on Wednesday as the US dollar strengthened and investors worried that rising interest rates would slow the economy and cut fuel demand. Oil’s losses were limited as the market discounted a big build in US crude stocks due to a data adjustment and as the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast higher global oil demand growth.

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