Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 29.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific markets fell across the board as investors prepared for signals on U.S. monetary policy from central bankers’ comments at the Jackson Hole meeting on Friday, including a speech by US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. In Asia, the core inflation rate for Japan’s capital Tokyo came in at 2.8% for August, slightly below the 2.9% expected by economists polled by Reuters. The core inflation rate strips out prices of fresh food. Overall inflation for Tokyo was recorded at 2.9%, lower than the 3.2% seen in July. Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.69% on its open, while the Topix was down 0.9%, while South Korea’s fell 1.04% and the Kosdaq shed 0.8% In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 also opened lower, dropping 1.19%. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 18,053, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s close of 18,212.17.
Stocks fell sharply Thursday after a tech rally, sparked by stronger-than-expected Nvidia results, was short-lived. Traders also braced for a key speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 373.56 points lower, or 1.08%, at 34,099.42. The S&P 500 lost 1.35% to end the day at 4,376.31. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 1.87% to 13,463.97. Thursday marked the worst day for the Dow since March. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq had their biggest one-day loss since Aug. 2. Nvidia shares reached an all-time high after the company reported quarterly earnings and revenue that exceeded lofty analyst expectations.
Stocks News:
👉Adani Group: Adani Group said cash and profit generated from its sprawling infrastructure business can cover all the debt maturing each year in the coming decade, as billionaire Gautam Adani tries to restore investor confidence days before India’s markets regulator is due to submit findings from a probe into the group’s alleged wrongdoings. In a credit report released Thursday, the conglomerate said its cash flow generated from business operations and balances stood at ₹77,890 crore by the end of March. That provides enough liquidity for the company to cover debts that will mature within a year.
👉One97 Communications: The parent company of Paytm, One97 Communications, promoter Antfin is expected to conduct a block deal on August 25. During this deal, they plan to sell approximately 3.6% of their stake, equivalent to around 2.3 crore shares, in the fintech firm Paytm. The proposed floor price for this transaction is anticipated to be set at a discount of ₹880.10 per share, representing a reduction of 2.7% from the closing price recorded on August 24. This information was reported by Bloomberg.
👉Coforge: BPEA EQT on Thursday sold its entire 26.63% stake in Coforge Ltd (formerly NIIT Technologies) for ₹7,684 crore to multiple investors through bulk deals, leaving the software services firm without a promoter and the first of its kind to be entirely owned by public investors. The block deals in the software services firm boosted its stock by around 10% to ₹5,391 on Thursday, with the transactions drawing marquee investors such as SBI Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Mutual Fund, Capital Group and Kotak Mahindra Group.
👉Vedanta: The mining company has received an arbitration award upholding the company’s contention in Rajasthan block case. The contention of the company is that the additional profit petroleum is not payable as per terms of the production sharing contract for Rajasthan block. The profit petroleum is on account of the Director General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) audit exceptions in relation to allocation of common development costs across Development Areas and certain other matters.
👉Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 1,524.87 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased Rs 5,796.61 crore worth of stocks on August 24, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.
Domestic and International Events
- Majority of the members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) expressed caution on the pick up in retail inflation in the near-term, showed the minutes of the monetary policy meeting held on August 8-10. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das cautioned that headline inflation is expected,
to harden significantly in July-August, driven by the spike in tomato and other vegetable prices, the minutes showed. Another member Rajiv Ranjan noted that the forecast of continuation of uneven monsoon in the next two months together with an El Nino event, amid volatile global food prices, makes the food price outlook uncertain. Ashima Goyal, another member in the six-member MPC panel, said important factors including the progress of the rest of the monsoon and possible supply-side action needs to be watched while deciding future rate course.
- The Rs 351-crore initial public offering (IPO) of Aeroflex Industries continued to get a good response on August 24 as well, the final day of bidding, with the issue subscribed 97.11 times. Investors had bid for 225.46 crore equity shares against the offer size of 2.32 crore, with the company probably enjoying the first-mover advantage in the flexible flow solutions industry. Healthy financial performance and improved debt-to-equity ratio also boosted investor confidence.
- Oil prices slipped on Thursday on disappointing economic data from key economies, with investors awaiting a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday for clues on interest rate moves. Brent crude fell 99 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $82.22 a barrel by 1352 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.08, or 1.4 percent, to $77.81 a barrel.
- Gold inched lower on Thursday after data pointing to a tight U.S. labour market pushed the dollar and yields higher but held a tight range as traders positioned for interest rate guidance from central bankers at Jackson Hole. Spot gold was down 0.02 percent at $1,913.99 per ounce by 9:30am EDT (1330 GMT), easing slightly off its highest level since August 10 hit earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures fell 0.3 percent to $1,941.60.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 18,212 | 2.1 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,082 | 0.1 % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 34,099 | (1.1) % |
| DAX | 15,621 | (0.7) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,334 | 0.2 % |
| Nikkei | 32,287 | 0.9 % |
| Straits Times | 3,181 | 0.2 % |
