Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is up by 28 points in the early morning trade, indicating a positive opening for Indian stock market
Asian markets were trading lower Friday after producer prices in the US grew at a faster than expected 0.6 percent in February. Investors in Asia will be watching out for any news from Japan’s spring wage negotiations, with first estimates expected to come out later in the day.
US stocks dropped on Thursday, with chipmaker stocks extending losses for a second day, and as a jump in producer prices left investors wondering if the Federal Reserve might wait longer than expected to cut interest rates.
Stocks News:
👉 Ratings agency Fitch on March 14 placed IIFL Finance on ‘Rating Watch Negative’ (RWN). The RWN follows a regulatory directive by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on March 4 where IIFL Finance was told to cease new gold-backed lending and related off-balance-sheet funding transactions. The RWN indicates that the rating could remain unchanged or be downgraded upon the resolution of the Watch.
👉 One97 Communications, which operates Paytm are likely to gain on March 15 after the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) granted the company to function as a third-party application provider (TPAP) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI). In response, Morgan Stanley analysts shared an ‘equal-weight’ call on the counter with a target price of Rs 555, implying an upside of 57 percent from current level.
👉 TATA Consumer Products has approved the Share-based Long Term Incentive Scheme 2024 for the grant of performance share units (PSUs) to the eligible employees of the company and its subsidiaries. The company would be issuing PSUs not exceeding $9,000,000 in one or more tranches.
👉 Crompton Greaves has bagged orders from the Government of Maharashtra, Haryana, and Rajasthan for the supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of solar photovoltaic water pumping systems (SWPS) with PV modules under the PM-KUSUM Scheme.
👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,356.29 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased Rs 139.47 crore worth of stocks on March 14, provisional data from the NSE showed.
Domestic and International Events
- State-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) announced a reduction in petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 per litre across country, to be effective from 6am on March 15. Petrol prices in Delhi would now be Rs 94.72 per litre compared to Rs 96.72 per litre earlier, while diesel would be sold at Rs 87.62 per litre. The move by the OMCs comes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the country.
- US retail sales rebounded in February, driven by increases at auto dealerships and gasoline service stations, but consumer spending is slowing as households grapple with inflation and higher borrowing costs. Retail sales rose 0.6 percent last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Thursday. Data for January was revised lower to show sales tumbling 1.1 percent instead of 0.8 percent as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales, which are mostly goods and are not adjusted for inflation, rising 0.8 percent in February.
- Gold slid on Thursday after a larger than expected rise in February’s U.S. producer price index (PPI) cooled expectations of early rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, boosting Treasury yields and the dollar.
- Oil prices edged lower on Friday but were on track to gain nearly 4% for the week as sharp declines in U.S. crude and fuel inventories, drone strikes on Russian refineries and a rise in energy demand forecasts buoyed prices.
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 16,961 | (0.7) % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,038 | (0.2) % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 38,906 | (0.4) % |
| DAX | 17,942 | (0.1) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,743 | (0.4) % |
| Nikkei | 38,807 | 0.3 % |
| Straits Times | 3,186 | 0.8 % |
