Indian markets expected to open on negative note, Adani prepays $2.15 bn debt, Oil prices decline.

Opening Bell:

SGX Nifty is up by 45.5 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.

Asian shares mostly fell Monday, shaken by a Wall Street tumble that set off worries the biggest U.S. bank failure in nearly 15 years might have ripple effects around the world. The Japanese Nikkei is down by 1.69 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up by 0.99 percent and South Korea’s Kospi is down by 0.57 percent in early morning deals.

U.S. stocks closed sharply lower and Treasury yields extended their slide on Friday over fears of contagion in the financial sector and strong February employment data showing the economy added more jobs than expected. The S&P 500 lost 1.45 percent and Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.76 percent respectively on Friday.

Stocks News:

?Gautam Adani is seeking to sell a stake in Ambuja Cements worth about $450 million, as part of efforts to reduce debt and restore investor confidence in his conglomerate, as per a Financial Times report. Adani owns 63% stake in Ambuja Cements.

?The Reserve Bank of India has approved ICICI Bank’s request for extension of time till September 9, 2024 for divesting the Bank’s shareholding in ICICI Lombard General Insurance.

?Paytm has clarified that Silicon Valley Bank, whose operations have been abruptly closed due to financial irregularities, has fully exited the parent company One97 Communication and has no investments as of date.

?Adani Group said it has completed full prepayment of margin-linked share-backed financing aggregating to $2.15 billion, well before the committed timeline of March 31.

?Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have net sold shares worth Rs 2,061 crore on Friday. DIIs, on the other hand, bought shares worth Rs 1,350 crore.

Domestic and International Events

• Oil prices were down early on Friday morning, with WTI and Brent set for the largest weekly loss since early February. The fall in prices was caused, in large part, by Jerome Powell signalling that the Federal Reserve will continue with its rate hikes.
• The monthly retail inflation for February will be released on March 13 and WPI inflation on March 14. The market will closely watch both data points as it is expected to decide the next course of action by the Reserve Bank of India in its next policy meeting scheduled in the first week of April.
• Globally investors will keep an eye on US inflation numbers scheduled on March 14, which is more important for the Federal Reserve before taking decision on interest rates in next policy meeting on March 22.
• This week, interest rate decision to be taken by the European Central Bank on March 16 and February inflation of European Union on March 17. Largely experts expect the 50 bps increase in interest rate by ECB in its meeting, to 3.5 percent, to combat elevated inflation.

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