SGX Nifty down 25 points; here's what changed for market while you were sleeping

Asian markets are down, and domestic stocks look set for a negative start. All eyes would be on Mindspace REIT listing and a couple of quarterly earnings.

Here’s breaking down the pre-market actions.

STATE OF THE MARKETS
SGX Nifty signals negative start
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 25.5 points, or 0.23 per cent lower at 11,187.50, in signs that Dalal Street was headed for a negative start on Friday.

Tech View: Nifty forms Doji candle
Nifty50 rose for the third day in a row on Thursday. The 50-pack index reclaimed the 10,200 level but formed a 'Doji' candle on the daily chart, suggesting indecisiveness among traders. Analysts said the index may continue to face resistance in the 11,240-250 range, and a sustained move beyond this range could push Nifty to the recent swing high of 11,341. Support for the index is now seen at 11,100 level.

Asian shares drop in early trade
Asia shares dropped in Friday's trade despite overnight gains in US stocks, as investors awaited a US nonfarm payrolls report. Japan's Nikkei 225 index was down 41.45 points or 0.20 per cent at 22,363.04 in early trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 211 points or 0.8 per cent to 24,731.72. China's Shanghai Composite index declined 17.39 points or 0.51 per cent to 3,369.24.

Now UBS downgrades RIL…

Brokerage UBS has downgraded Reliance Industries to neutral from buy as it believes that the company’s key segments — oil-to-chemicals, retail and digital — could face macro headwinds. However, it has raised the target price to ₹2,300 from ₹1,700 after rolling over valuations to FY22. This is the fourth downgrade by a large brokerage in recent weeks after CLSA, HSBC, and Edelweiss.

Oil settles below 5-month highs

Oil prices settled below five-month highs on Thursday. Brent crude settled 8 cents down at $45.09 a barrel, while US crude fell 24 cents to $41.95 after a four-day streak of gains.

US stocks settled higher
In overnight trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 185.46 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 27,386.98, the S&P500 index gained 21.39 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 3,349.16 and the Nasdaq Composite added 109.67 points, or 1 per cent, to 11,108.07.

Mindspace Business Parks REIT to list today
Mindspace Business Parks REIT will list on bourses on Friday and will be admitted to dealings on the Exchange in the list of ‘IF’ Group of Securities. The issue price is set at Rs 275. The public was subscribed 12.96 times. Last year, Embassy Office Park REIT, the country's first REIT issue, raised nearly Rs 5,000 crore.

Q1 earnings today
Balrampur Chini, Bata India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla, BEML, Emami, Sobha and Scooters India: are among companies that are scheduled to announce their June quarter earnings on Friday.

FIIs buy Rs 637 cr worth of stocks
Net-net, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were buyers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 637.43 crore, data available with NSE suggested. DIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 468 crore, data suggests.

MONEY MARKETS
Rupee: The rupee pared initial gains and settled on a flat note at 74.94 against the US dollar on Thursday after the RBI kept interest rates unchanged.

10-year bonds: India 10-year bond yield rose 0.62 per cent to 5.86 after trading in 5.80-5.88 range.

Call rates: The overnight call money rate weighted average stood at 3.41 per cent, according to RBI data. It moved in a range of 1.80-4.10 per cent.

DATA/EVENTS TO WATCH

Earnings: Cipla I M&M I REC I AB Capital I Amara Raja Batteries I Andhra Paper I Bata India
Japan June Household Spending (05.00 am)
RBA Money Policy Statement (07.00 am)
China July Balance of Trade (08.30 am)
China July Foreign Exchange Reserve (12.30 pm)
UK July Halifax House Price Index (01.00 pm)
US July Unemployment Rate (06.00 pm)
RBI Foreign Exchange Reserve as of July 31 (05.00 pm)

MACROS
Loan EMI holiday ends on Aug 31… Reserve Bank of India ended the loan repayment moratorium and unveiled a loan-restructuring programme as a first step toward nudging industry and banks to return to normalcy, while keeping interest rates unchanged, balancing the need to shore up the Covid-hit economy with inflation vigilance. The MPC unanimously backed the status quo on rates amid elevated price pressures, but acknowledged the need for action to aid economic growth.

NBFC liquidity in best shape… Non-banking financial companies’ access to funds is probably in its best shape since the implosion of IL&FS even as the borrowing cost has also come down, RBI said. This is a significant shift from the view in the RBI’s financial stability report released in July, which had flagged continued liquidity concerns for NBFCs. Governor Shaktikanta Das said the NBFC sector, which was in stress post IL&FS and throughout early part of 2019, has now access to funding at reasonable cost.

Loan recast for individuals, industry… For the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday announced an across-the-board loan restructuring scheme that will extend to individuals in addition to airlines, hotels and steel and cement companies hit by the pandemic. The step is being viewed as the central bank’s effort to shoulder the burden of seeing the economy through the worst peacetime crisis in the last 100 years. The RBI is also expected to unveil more relief measures for the most stressed segments, especially in the services sector.

Startups to get priority lending… RBI has assigned priority sector lending status to India’s startup sector. This is expected to help thousands of small startups get better access to bank credit for working capital support. Under PSL guidelines, banks have to set aside a specific portion of bank lending to sectors deemed important by the central bank. The PSL status was till now reserved for sectors such as micro, small and medium enterprises, agriculture, education and housing.

Employment recovery halted in July…The recovery in employment rate slowed down in July at 1.7 percentage points compared to June when it stood at 6.7 percentage points, suggesting a slowdown in economic activity after initial recovery, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said in its weekly report. While the unemployment rate recovered in July to the pre-Covid levels, the labour participation rate was yet to recover to pre-Covid levels, CMIE said.

Saudi, Iraq stress full commitment to Opec+ deal… Saudi Arabia and Iraq have stressed their full commitment to the OPEC+ deal, Iraqi state news agency said on Friday. On Thursday, Iraq said it would make an additional cut in its oil production of about 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August to compensate for its overproduction over the past period of the OPEC+ supply reduction pact.