Key Things To Know Before Market Opens On Thursday

The Indian equity market is likely to open higher on Thursday after it saw a steep fall later in the day yesterday after RBI announced rate hike.

The SGX Nifty indicated a positive start for the equity market. Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 150 points, or 0.90 per cent, higher at 16,839, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Thursday.

US stocks rallied sharply after the Fed downplayed the aggression in rate hikes, whereas Asian stocks were trading with strong gains. 

Besides, LIC's IPO will be in focus on its second day of subscription. 

Indian stock markets tanked on Wednesday after the Reserve Bank of India stunned the market with an increase in policy rates, citing inflationary pressures.

The Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee, in an off-cycle meeting, raised key lending rate by 40 basis points.

Sensex slumped 1,306.96 points to end at 55,669.03 after the RBI rate hike, while Nifty tanked 391.50 points to 16,677.60.

Among sectoral indexes, Nifty bank index dropped 2.5%, while the finance index fell 2.6%. Nifty realty index lost 3.3%, indicating higher rates could potentially hurt the sector. 

Stocks in focus today

Adani group stocks, Dabur India, Marico, TVS Motor, Exide Industries will be in focus ahead of earnings. 

Tata Consumer Products: The company clocked 304 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated profit at Rs 217.54 crore in the quarter ended March 2022 driven by growth in underlying profitability and lower exceptional costs.

ABB India: The company reported solid performance during the quarter ended March 2022, with profit growing 145 percent YoY to Rs 370 crore on strong topline and operating performance.

Havells India: The electrical equipment manufacturer clocked 16 percent year-on-year growth in Q4FY22 profit at Rs 352.48 crore driven by lower tax cost and higher topline. 

Adani Total Gas: The Adani Group company reported a 44 percent year-on-year decline in consolidated profit at Rs 81 crore in quarter ended March 2022 impacted by higher cost of natural gas prices. 

Fed rate hike

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by half a percentage point and said it would begin shrinking the central bank's $9 trillion asset portfolio next month in an effort to further lower inflation.

Asian shares trade higher

Major Asian stocks started Thursday with a healthy advance after the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates but played down any chance of a huge 75 basis-point lift in the near future. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 1.08 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.06%, Australia's ASX 200 gained 0.56%, South Korea's Kospi jumped 0.08%, New Zealand's DJ surged 0.61%, China's Shanghai added 0.37%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 1.39%

Wall Street closes with sharp gains after Fed's interest rate hike

U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve delivered a widely expected interest-rate hike, and the S&P 500 recorded its biggest one-day percentage gain in nearly two years.

Stocks initially see-sawed after the announcement, then the indexes strengthened. The S&P 500's advance of almost 3% was the strongest since May 18, 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 932.27 points, or 2.81%, to 34,061.06, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 124.69 points, or 2.99%, to 4,300.17 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 401.10 points, or 3.19%, to 12,964.86.

Foreign institutional investors

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net offloaded shares worth Rs 3,288.18 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,338 crore worth of shares on May 4, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Oil prices extend gains

Oil prices edged higher at the start of Asian trade on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session, after the European Union proposed new sanctions against Russia that included an embargo on crude oil in six months. Brent crude futures rose 22 cents to $110.36 a barrel. WTI crude futures rose 15 cents to $107.96 a barrel. Both benchmarks rose over $5 a barrel on Wednesday.