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Business News/ Market / Stock-market-news/  Opening Bell 18 March | Eleven things to watch out for in markets today
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Opening Bell 18 March | Eleven things to watch out for in markets today

Investors are expecting Federal Reserve to pave the way to an interest-rate hike as early as this summer

A file photo of the BSE building in Mumbai. Photo: Hemant Mishra/MintPremium
A file photo of the BSE building in Mumbai. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Asian markets

Asian markets were trading on a cautious note on Wednesday as investors are expecting the US Federal Reserve to pave the way to an interest-rate hike as early as this summer by removing the word “patient" from its statement. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.2% and Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.1%. China’s Shanghai Composite rallied 1.6% on hopes of further stimulus from the central bank.

Impact of fall in Dow

Overnight, US and European stocks gave back some of the previous session’s solid gains against a backdrop of further weakness for oil prices and increasing nervousness about the potential impact of a forthcoming Federal Reserve policy decision, reports Financial Times. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7%, Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2% and S&P 500 was down 0.4%.

Christine Lagarde’s caution on India’s overseas corporate debt

A normalization of monetary policy in the US and the recent rise of the dollar could pose challenges to emerging economies such as India cautioned Christine Lagarde, managing director of International Monetary Fund. India’s corporate sector, which has borrowed heavily in foreign currency, is not immune to this vulnerability as its debt has doubled in the last five years to about $120 billion.

Wipro shares after its investment in Drivestream

Wipro Ltd shares will be in focus after the company said that it has acquired a minority stake in Drivestream Inc., a management and IT consulting firm specializing in Oracle Cloud Services for $5 million, read more.

Telecom shares following spectrum auctions

Telecom shares will be in focus as the ongoing spectrum auction has become lucrative with the government set to raise at least 1.07 trillion at the end of the 12th day of bidding. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd pushed Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd into a bidding war for the 900 MHz band, a move aimed at draining their resources. Lately, Vodafone has been pushing prices up in the 800 MHz CDMA band which is being sought by Ambani-controlled Jio to deploy 4G in future, reports Economic Times.

Boost for Jet Airways

Jet Airways Ltd will start dedicated cargo operations in April, becoming the first private Indian airline to do so. The cargo service, with Delhi as its base, will be operated using an Airbus A330-200F aircraft wet-leased from partner Etihad Airways PJSC, reports Mint.

Essar plan to buy Nokia’s Chennai plant

Essar Group has emerged as a serious contender to buy Finnish firm Nokia’s defunct Chennai plant at around 200 crore. The two sides are in talks over valuations for a deal which, if sealed, could end uncertainty over the fate of what was once a manufacturing hub for handsets, reports Economic Times.

Goa mining to resume

Metal and mining shares will be in focus after as iron mining in Goa will soon resume after the union ministry of environment and forest on Tuesday revoked the suspension of environmental clearances of mines in the coastal state, read more.

Will Bhushan Steel get a reprieve from lenders

Bhushan Steel Ltd shares will be in focus as its creditors are in advanced talks to restructure about 23,000 crore ($3.7 billion) of long-term loans to the Indian steel producer. Lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) are looking at extending the tenor of about 20,000 crore of local-currency term loans to around 25 years, from an average of eight years.

Possessed property sales by public sector banks

State Bank of India’s e-auction for properties worth 1,200 crore failed to attract investors as it sold 124 of the 450 properties put through auction on an electronic platform, for about 90 crore, reports Business Standard. Public sector banks intend to conduct a repeat on a similar scale in each quarter, improving the bidding process and information disclosures.

The long march against the land acquisition bill

Lastly, the land acquisition bill has hit a road block again as over 100 opposition MPs led by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday marched from the parliament to the Rashtrapati Bhawan protesting against the bill. The Congress and other opposition parties have been opposing the land acquisition bill terming it as anti-farmer and pro-corporate.

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Published: 18 Mar 2015, 07:55 AM IST
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