BackStock markets likely to be volatile; Future group, SBI, Hero MotoCorp in focus
State Bank of India, Hero MotoCorp, Adani Power, Adani Transmission, HPCL, Kalpataru Power Transmission, NTPC, Tata Power, Trent, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, are among the companies that will report December quarter results today
PremiumMUMBAI: Indian equities will likely trade volatile on Thursday, with SGX Nifty trends suggesting a positive opening for domestic benchmark indices.
On Wednesday, the Sensex closed above the 50,000-mark for the first time ever. The 30-share index ended at 50,255.75, up 458.03 points or 0.92%. The Nifty closed at 14,789.95, up 142.10 points or 0.97%.
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Asian stocks came under pressure on Thursday as a mixed Wall Street session gave investors few immediate reasons to increase their risk positions following the recent social media-driven trading chaos.
Markets have calmed significantly in the past few days with the Cboe Volatility index down on Wednesday as wild swings in stock prices of GameStop and other social media favorites subsided and the retail trading frenzy faded.
However, caution continues to dominate sentiment despite positive corporate earnings and firm signs of economic recovery.
Back home, India’s markets regulator on Wednesday barred Future Group founder Kishore Biyani and several related entities, including his brother Anil, from accessing the securities market in an insider trading case dating back to 2017. The decision comes even as Biyani’s sale of his businesses to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail is facing legal challenges from Amazon.com Inc.
Some of the top companies that will declare December quarter results today are Hero MotoCorp, Hindustan Petroleum, Ipca Labs, NTPC, REC, State Bank of India, Tata Power, Zee Entertainment and Godrej Properties.
Phase-3 trial results of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine published in The Lancet showed an efficacy of 91.6%. These are the highest efficacy figures so far for vaccines that could potentially come to India. In India, Dr Reddy’s will be supplying around 250 million doses of the vaccine while Hetero Biopharma will be manufacturing about 100 million doses per year.
In global markets, oil prices continued to advance as inventories hit their lowest level since March. U.S. crude recently rose 0.45% to $55.94 per barrel and Brent was at $58.67, up 2.11% on the day.
U.S. Treasury yields continued to rise on the hopes of a large stimulus package and the dollar strengthened against a basket of currencies as investors felt more confident in the US recovery trajectory than in Europe's recovery. The benchmark 10-year yield was last up 3.2 basis points at 1.1391%
The 30-year bond was last up 4.9 basis point at 1.9267%, while the 20-year yield hit 1.735%, its highest level since that bond maturity was relaunched in May 2020.
The dollar index was up 0.07% at 91.145 in afternoon trading in New York after rising to a two-month high of 91.308 during the session.
Spot gold fell 0.2% to $1,833.93 per ounce and U.S. gold futures settled up 0.1% at $1,835.10.
(Reuters contributed to the story)
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