Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 9.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets rose ahead of central bank rate decisions from South Korea and Indonesia, although both central banks are expected to hold their benchmark policy rates unchanged at 3.5% and 5.75% respectively. South Korea’s producer price index climbed 0.2% year-on-year, the 13th straight month that growth in the PPI has slowed. Investors will also be assessing chipmaker’s Nvidia’s earnings that were released early Thursday. The company beat estimates for the fiscal second quarter and issued optimistic guidance for the current period. Japan’s Nikkei 225 opened 0.44% up, while the Topix climbed 0.13% on Thursday. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 started the day 0.42% higher, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.04% and the Kosdaq was up 1.55%. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 17,973, pointing to a stronger open compared with the HSI’s close of 17,845.92.
Stock futures ticked higher on Wednesday, with investors focusing on key second-quarter results from chipmaker Nvidia to gauge whether the AI excitement is more than just hype. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.5% while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.7%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed. All eyes on Wall Street were keenly awaiting Nvidia’s second-quarter results after the closing bell, and it didn’t disappoint. The company earned $2.70 per share after adjustments on $13.51 billion in revenue. That topped the average analyst estimate from Refinitiv of $2.09 per share in profits and $11.22 billion in revenue.
Stocks News:
👉Reliance Industries: The Qatar Investment Authority will invest $1 billion or Rs 8,278 crore in Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), the subsidiary of Reliance Industries, to pick up a stake of 0.99 percent. The investment values the company at a pre-money equity value of $100 billion or Rs 8.27 lakh crore.
👉Coforge: Promoter Hulst BV is looking to offload its entire 26.63% stake in the mid-sized IT firm via a block deal, sources told CNBC Awaaz. The floor price has been fixed at Rs 4,550 per share, which is a 7.4% discount to Wednesday’s closing price of Rs 4,913. The Netherlands-registered Hulst BV is owned and controlled by funds affiliated with BPEA (Baring Private Equity Asia). Hulst BV will sell 1.62 crore shares, taking the deal size to around Rs 7,400 crore, sources said.
👉GAIL India: State-owned Gail India plans a capital expenditure of ₹30,000 crore, mainly in pipelines, petrochemical projects and city gas distribution, over the next three years. The company’s total capital expenditure for FY23 was ₹10,000 crore. We are targeting to incur a capex ₹30,000 crore in the next 3 years, mainly on pipelines, ongoing petrochemical projects, CGD projects, operational capex, equity contribution in group companies etc.,” said Gail CMD Sandeep Kumar Gupta while addressing the shareholders at the AGM.
👉Shree Renuka/EID Parry/Balrampur Chini: India is expected to ban mills from exporting sugar in the next season beginning October, halting shipments for the first time in seven years, as a lack of rain has cut cane yields, three government sources said. India’s absence from the world market would be likely to increase benchmark prices in New York and London that are already trading around multi-year highs, triggering fears of further inflation on global food markets.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 614.32 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased Rs 125.03 crore worth of stocks on August 23, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.
Domestic and International Events
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on August 23 said price stability is essential for maintaining the economic growth of the country. “Price stability has to be the basis of sustainable growth. Without price stability, any growth which you try to achieve in the short term will only have a short life. So, price stability is absolutely essential for maintaining the momentum of growth and sustaining the country’s GDP growth,” Das said.
- Taking cognizance of the historic feat of India in becoming the first country in the world to land a spacecraft (Chandrayaan-3) successfully on the Moon’s South Pole, Indian space startups and bodies representing such startups, are lauding the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for this momentous achievement. Indian Space Association, which represents around 30 Indian space tech start-ups, apart from bigger players such as major players such as Bharti Airtel, L&T, and OneWeb said that this achievement will help in establishing a lunar economy and encouraging broader celestial exploration. “We applaud ISRO on the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 which shows India’s strong spirit of space exploration and our prowess in the space domain,” Lt Gen AK Bhatt (retd.), Director General, Indian Space Association said.
- Oil prices dipped on Wednesday as demand woes stemming from a build in U.S. gasoline stocks and weak manufacturing data globally outweighed optimism around a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. crude stocks. Brent crude was down 56 cents, or 0.7%, at $83.48 a barrel, bouncing off a 2.5% decline earlier in the session.
- Gold prices jumped to a near two-week high on Wednesday, helped by a pullback in U.S. bond yields and the dollar as investors looked ahead to the Jackson Hole symposium for guidance on interest rates. Spot gold rose 1% to $1,916.10 per ounce by 11:25 a.m. EDT (1524 GMT), after hitting its highest since Aug. 11. U.S. gold futures also climbed 1% to $1,945.50.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 17,846 | 0.3 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,078 | (1.3) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 34,473 | 0.5 % |
| DAX | 15,728 | 0.2 % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,321 | 0.7 % |
| Nikkei | 32,010 | 0.5 % |
| Straits Times | 3,174 | 0.5 % |
