BackMarkets likely to rise on firm Asian shares; Reliance in focus
Mukesh Ambani has sold a stake in Reliance Jio for a third time in three weeks. He has sold 2.32% stake for ₹11,367 crore in Jio PlatformsThe government on Thursday urged states to prepare a robust strategy against the spread of covid-19 from migrants heading home
PremiumIndian stock markets are expected to gain on Friday, tracking Asian peers that advanced in early deals due to overnight rally on Wall Street. Upbeat corporate earnings took the focus off upcoming data that is expected show the worst US unemployment rate in more than 70 years. Trends in SGX Nifty also suggest that the domestic benchmark indices may open in the green.
The US and European stock indices rose over 1% on Thursday.
The tech-rich Nasdaq erased losses for 2020, following a clutch of upbeat earnings. PayPal Holdings soared 14%.
PayPal said it expects a strong recovery in payments volumes in the second quarter as social distancing drives more people to shop online.
Looming on the market horizon, however, is a report on Friday that is expected to show that the US April unemployment rate jumped to 16% as people stayed home to thwart the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Markets have already had a taste of such weakness in weekly claims for unemployment benefits that added up to some 33.5 million people over the past few weeks, roughly one of every five American workers.
Back home, Mukesh Ambani has sold a stake in his digital services group Reliance Jio for a third time in three weeks. He has sold 2.32% equity stake for ₹11,367 crore in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis to US-based Vista Equity Partners. Post this deal, Vista will be largest investor in Jio Platforms after Reliance Industries and Facebook. Jio Platforms has now raised ₹60,596.37 crore from technology investors in less than three weeks.
Yes Bank is looking to raise Rs10,000-12,000 crore through a follow-on public offer (FPO), rights issue or qualified institutional placement (QIP), managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) Prashant Kumar said.
Franklin Templeton global president Jennifer M. Johnson’s statement on regulatory reasons behind shutting down its six debt schemes in India has not gone down well with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). In a statement late evening on Thursday, Sebi said it has advised Franklin Templeton India to focus on refunding investors' money at the earliest following closure of its six schemes with over ₹25,000 cr in assets.
The government on Thursday urged states to prepare a “robust strategy" against the spread of covid-19 from migrants heading home. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are leaving cities, worrying government officials about a potential transfer of coronavirus from urban to rural India.
In currency trading, some booked profits from recent greenback gains with the dollar index falling 0.3% from a two-week high on Thursday.
The euro was little changed at $1.0836.
Oil prices backed off with Brent LCOc1 futures down 26 cents, or 0.9%, at $29.46 a barrel, while UScrude CLc1 lost 44 cents, or 1.8%, to $23.55.
Brent had been up over 5% and US crude up over 10% earlier in the day, cheered by a surprise increase in China exports and a rise in Saudi Arabia's official price for crude.
US Treasury yields fell on Thursday from three-week highs as investors adjusted to a flood of new longer-dated debt announced earlier in the week, part of the government's plan to borrow $3 trillion this quarter, five times the previous quarterly record.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to 0.633 late on Thursday from 0.713 the prior afternoon. The yield on the 30-year bond fell to 1.3156% late on Thursday from 1.413% the prior afternoon.
Volatility hit the other end of the yield curve, where federal funds futures began pricing in negative US interest rates for the first time. That came even as Federal Reserve officials have said such a development would be bad for the economy. Two-year yields also fell to record lows of 0.129%.
Spot gold was down 0.2% to $1,714.53 an ounce.
(Reuters contributed to the story.)
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