Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is down by 14.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market
On Monday, Asian stock markets experienced a decline, influenced by Wall Street’s losses. The MSCI’s comprehensive index of Asia-Pacific shares, excluding Japan, decreased by 0.3% after reaching an eight-month high on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 saw a decline of 2.07%, and the Topix fell by 1.33%. South Korea’s Kospi registered a drop of 1.39%, while the Kosdaq traded slightly lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures suggested a marginally stronger opening.
On Friday, the US stock market indices closed in negative territory following record highs in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq earlier in the session. Chip stocks retraced, and there was a release of mixed labor market data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a decline of 68.66 points, or 0.18%, settling at 38,722.69. The S&P 500 dropped 33.67 points, or 0.65%, closing at 5,123.69. The Nasdaq Composite concluded 188.26 points, or 1.16%, lower at 16,085.11. Over the week, the S&P 500 saw a decrease of 0.26%, the Nasdaq slipped by 1.17%, and the Dow dropped 0.93%.
Stocks News:
👉 Interglobe Aviation: Reports suggest that Rakesh Gangwal, co-founder of IndiGo, is contemplating selling a stake of up to 5.8 percent in Interglobe Aviation, the parent company of the airline. This is a significant increase from his initial plan of selling a 3.3 percent stake, as reported by CNBC-TV18 on March 8. The intended equity sale is projected to generate close to ₹6,600 crore, with shares priced at a minimum of ₹2,925 each.
👉 Rail Vikas Nigam: The state-run railway company has received a Letter of Award (LoA) for a Rs 1,298.2-crore project from the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board for the development of distribution infrastructure in the south and north zones of Himachal Pradesh under the revamped reform-based and results-linked distribution sector scheme (loss reduction works). It also bagged a project worth Rs 251.05 crore from the Madhya Pradesh Poorv Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company for the supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of 11 KV Line-associated works in Jabalpur. The RVNL and URC joint venture have received a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) worth Rs 543 crore from Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (MPMRCL) with respect to the Indore Metro Rail Project.
👉 Adani Enterprises: Karan Adani, MD of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, announced plans for the Adani Group to invest approximately ₹60,000 crore in expanding its seven existing airports over the next 5-10 years. Half of this investment will go towards enhancing terminal and runway capacity in the next five years, with the remainder allocated for city-side development over the subsequent decade. Additionally, the group plans to invest an extra ₹18,000 crore in the Navi Mumbai airport, funded by internal accruals from Adani Enterprises.
👉 Reliance Industries: Viacom18, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has reorganized its entertainment divisions ahead of the anticipated $8.5-billion merger with Disney’s India unit. In this restructuring, Kiran Mani, previously the Chief Executive of Digital Business (JioCinema) since November, will now oversee digital and sports businesses. Kevin Vaz, who joined as CEO – Broadcast in July, will be responsible for the entire content business. Anil Jairaj, Viacom18 Sports CEO, previously reporting to the board, will now report to Mani, with Kiran and Kevin jointly serving as co-CEOs.
👉 Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 7,304.11 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased Rs 2,601.81 crore worth of stocks on March 7, provisional data from the NSE showed.
Domestic and International Events
- India’s forex reserves rose by $6.55 billion to reach $625.626 billion for the week ending March 1, as reported by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday. In the previous week, reserves had increased by $2.975 billion to $619.072 billion. The foreign currency assets, a major component, rose by $6.043 billion to $554.231 billion. It’s noteworthy that the reserves had hit an all-time high of $645 billion in October 2021 but faced a decline due to the central bank’s efforts to defend the rupee amid global pressures.
- Federal Reserve policymakers weighing when to start interest-rate cuts got fresh reasons on Friday to remain on standby, after a government report showed robust job growth in February but also signs of labor market cooling that could help the Fed’s battle with inflation. US employers added 275,000 jobs last month, a Labor Department report showed on Friday, handily beating the 200,000 that economists expected.
- Chinese consumer prices rose in February for the first time since August, data showed. China’s consumer price index rose 0.7% last month, higher than 0.3% rise analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected and a sharp increase on the 0.8% fall seen in January.
- Crude oil prices extended losses ahead of US inflation data and reports from OPEC and the IEA this week that may provide clues on the demand outlook. Brent futures declined 0.67% to $81.53 a barrel after closing 1.1% lower on Friday, while West Texas Intermediate dropped 0.74% to $77.43 a barrel.
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 16,353 | 0.8 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,046 | 0.6 % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 38,723 | (0.2) % |
| DAX | 17,815 | (0.2) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,660 | (0.4) % |
| Nikkei | 39,689 | 0.2 % |
| Straits Times | 3,147 | 0.4 % |
