SGX Nifty indicates a negative opening for Indian markets, Edelweiss Financial Services de-merger and more

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is down by 11.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.

Asian shares slipped on Monday as markets were forced to price in ever-loftier peaks for US and European interest rates, slugging bonds globally and pushing the dollar to multi-week highs. The Japanese Nikkei is down by 0.16 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up by 0.17 percent and South Korea’s Kospi is up by 1.16 percent in early morning deals.

Wall Street’s main indices posted their biggest weekly drop of 2023 after sharp losses on Friday, as investors braced for the possibility of more aggressive rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve as US economic data pointed to resilient consumers. The S&P 500 gained 1.05 percent and Nasdaq Composite added by 1.69 percent respectively.

Stocks News:

?Edelweiss Financial Services has received the shareholders’ approval for the proposed demerger of its Wealth Management business. The demerger will pave the way for listing of Nuvama Wealth Management (NWML), which was earlier known as Edelweiss Wealth Management. NWML will allot 1.05 crore equity shares to shareholders of Edelweiss Financial Services on proportionate basis as a consideration for demerger.

?Indian telecommunications tycoon Sunil Mittal is seeking a stake in Paytm by merging his financial services unit into the fintech giant’s payments bank, Bloomberg reported. In other news, Ant Group is considering selling some of its shares in Paytm to keep its holding within a required threshold.

?Vodafone Idea shareholders on Saturday approved a Rs 1,600-crore preferential issue of optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) to American Tower Corp (ATC), a move that will allow the cash-strapped telco to pay off most of the US tower company’s dues

?Indiabulls Housing approved the public issue of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures for an amount up to Rs 100 crore with an option to retain oversubscription up to Rs 800 crore, aggregating up to Rs 900 crore.

?Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,470.34 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth Rs 1,400.98 crore on February 24, the National Stock Exchange’s provisional data showed

Domestic and International Events

• US consumer spending increased by the most in nearly two years in January amid a surge in wage gains, while inflation accelerated, adding to financial market fears that the Federal Reserve could continue raising interest rates into summer.
• India’s economic growth appears to be ‘very fragile’ and it may fall short of what the country needs to meet the aspirations of its growing workforce, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Jayanth R Varma said on Sunday.
• There are some disagreements over restructuring debt for distressed economies, the chief of the International Monetary Fund said on Saturday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, adding that banning private cryptocurrencies should be an option.
• Oil prices fell below $82 a barrel on February 24 as rising inventories in the United States and concerns over global economic activity offset the prospect of lower Russian exports.
• NSE’s index services subsidiary, NSE Indices Limited, on February 24 launched India’s first-ever Municipal Bond Index, Nifty India Municipal Bond Index at a SEBI workshop on Municipal Debt Securities in Bengaluru.

Key Equity Indices