Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is down by 11.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets saw a sell-off on Wednesday, mirroring moves on Wall Street after a decline in US banks. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 1.46%, the first time it has went below the 32,000 mark in over a month, while the Topix closed down 1.29%. South Korea’s Kospi came back from a public holiday 1.76% down, while the Kosdaq saw a larger loss of 2.59%, its lowest level since July 11. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 1.5% and notching its third day of losses in four days. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.31% in its final hour, while mainland Chinese markets were also lower, with the CSI 300 index 0.73% down. China saw its house price index fall into contraction territory for the first time since April, dropping 0.1% year-on-year.
Stock futures were near flat on Wednesday night as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s latest commentary that future rate hikes are not out of the picture. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 20 points, or 0.06%. S&P 500 futures traded near the flat line, while Nasdaq 100 futures inched lower by 0.07%. The after-hours moves follow a second consecutive losing session for the three major averages. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 dropped 0.76%, while the Dow shed 0.52% and the Nasdaq Composite 1.15%. The markets reflected investors’ concerns after officials said in the central bank’s July meeting minutes that additional tightening may be necessary to bring down inflation. The federal funds rate is currently in a range between 5.25% to 5.5%.
Stocks News:
👉JSW Energy: Rajiv Jain-backed GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund has purchased 1.03 crore shares or 0.62% stake in JSW Energy, via open market transactions at an average price of Rs 341.7 per share. However, promoter JSW Investments sold 2.1 crore shares or 1.28% stake in the company at same price, which amounted to Rs 717.57 crore.
👉US-based boutique investment firm GQG Partners along with other investors on Wednesday bought an 8.1 per cent stake in Adani Power Ltd for over Rs 9,000 crore (USD 1.1 billion) as the marquee investor shrugged off damning report of a US short seller to invest in billionaire Gautam Adani’s group. GQG Partners and other investors bought 31.2 crore shares of Adani Power in a block deal one of the largest ever secondary market equity transactions-stock market data showed. Adani Power is the fourth firm of the ports-to-energy conglomerate where GQG has invested since May. Promoter Adani family, which held 74.97 percent in the firm, sold 31.2 crore or an 8.1 percent stake at an average price of Rs 279.17 per share.
👉One 97 Communications: Investor Antfin (Netherlands) Holding BV offloaded 6.53 crore equity shares or 10.3% stake in the payment app Paytm operator, in the off-market transactions. As a result, the shareholding of Antfin, an affiliate of China’s Ant Group Co, in the company reduced to 13.49%, down from 23.79% earlier. Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma was the buyer in the off-market transfer of shares.
👉MSME-focussed non-banking finance company SBFC Finance attracted huge interest from investors on its debut on August 16 as the stock settled on the first day with 62% gains despite volatility in the equity markets. The stock, as expected, opened higher at Rs 82, up 44% over issue price of Rs 57 on the NSE. It maintained its opening price, which was also its day’s low, throughout the session and hit an intraday high of Rs 95.45, up 67.5%. At the close, the stock was 61.75% higher at Rs 92.20 on the NSE, while on the BSE, it was at Rs 92.21, up 61.77%. In terms of volumes, SBFC Finance traded with a volume of 20.44 crore equity shares on the NSE and 1.09 crore shares on the BSE.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 722.76 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased Rs 2,406.19 crore worth of stocks on August 16, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.
Domestic and International Events
- S&P Global on Thursday projected the Indian economy to grow by an average annual rate of 6.7% to March 2031, driven by manufacturing and services exports and consumer demand, despite short-term challenges from rate hikes and a global slowdown. S&P retained its earlier forecast of 6% growth for the current fiscal year ending March 2024, noting even at this rate, India will be the fastest growing economy in the G20. Last month, the International Monetary Fund raised its growth forecast for India by 0.2% points to 6.1% for the current fiscal year, while the central bank has forecast 6.5% rise.
While the world is in the midst of an unprecedented period of transition and uncertainty, India faces a defining opportunity to capitalize on this moment,” said the S&P Global in its report “Look Forward: India’s Moment S&P Global expects the size of the economy to reach $6.7 trillion from $3.4 trillion in fiscal 2023, which could see per capita GDP rise to about $4,500. If realised, India would overtake Japan and Germany to become the third largest economy in the world.
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved Seven projects of the Ministry of Railways with an estimated cost of around Rs.32,500 Crore, with 100% funding from Central Government. The proposals of multi-tracking will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across Indian Railways. The projects covering 35 districts in 9 States i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 2339 Kms. and will provide employment of 7.06 crore man-days to the people of the states.
- Oil prices were little changed on Wednesday as investors weighed worries about China’s embattled economy against expectations of tighter supply in the United States. Brent crude futures edged up 27 cents to $85.16 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) crept 29 cents higher to $81.28 a barrel. Both benchmarks fell more than 1% in the previous session to their lowest since August 8.
- Gold clawed higher on Wednesday on a weaker dollar and bond yields, recovering some ground after retreating below the key $1,900 level in the last session following robust US economic data. Bullion traders also positioned for minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting for further cues on interest rate strategy, as well as U.S. homebuilding and factory output data later in the day. Spot gold edged up 0.2%, to $1,905.25 per ounce, while US gold futures were up 0.1%, at 1,936.60.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 18,329 | (1.4) % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,150 | (0.8) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 34,766 | (0.5) % |
| DAX | 15,789 | 0.1 % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,357 | (0.4) % |
| Nikkei | 31,767 | (1.5) % |
| Straits Times | 3,214 | (0.6) % |
