The Indian stock market is expected to open in the green following positive global cues. Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the index in India with a 57 points gain.
The S&P BSE Sensex declined 86.95 points to close at 49,771.29 on March 22 while the Nifty50 fell 7.60 points to 14,736.40. According to pivot charts, the key support levels for the Nifty are placed at 14,634.83, followed by 14,533.27. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 14,800.93 and 14,865.47.
Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in the currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines across news platforms which could impact Indian as well as international markets:
US Markets
Wall Street rallied on Monday as technology stocks rebounded from a recent sell-off sparked by surging bond yields, and Tesla jumped after a fund run by an influential investor in the electric-car maker said its shares could approach $3,000 by 2025.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 103.23 points, or 0.32%, at 32,731.2. The S&P 500 gained 27.49 points, or 0.70%, to 3,940.59 and the Nasdaq Composite added 162.31 points, or 1.23%, to 13,377.54.
Asian Markets
Asian stocks were set to track Wall Street gains on Tuesday as bond yields pulled back, easing concerns about inflation although investors are keeping a close eye on rising COVID-19 cases in Europe.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures rose 0.5%, while Australian stocks were up 0.3%. In Japan, Nikkei futures were 0.8% higher. E-mini futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.06%.
SGX Nifty
Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the index in India with a 57 points gain. The Nifty futures were trading at 14,772 on the Singaporean Exchange around 07:30 hours IST.
Oil prices
Oil steadied on Monday as hopes for a pick-up in demand later this year helped arrest last week’s broad sell-off, but prices stayed under pressure as new European coronavirus lockdowns made a quick recovery look less likely.
Brent crude ended the session up 9 cents or 0.1% at $64.62 a barrel, while U.S. oil for delivery in April fell 13 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $61.55 a barrel as it expired.
RBI announces panel to evaluate applications for Universal Banks, Small Finance Banks
The Reserve Bank of Indi (RBI) on Monday announced the creation of a Standing External Advisory Committee for evaluating applications for Universal Banks and Small Finance Banks.
This is part of the central bank's earlier announced plan to give banking permits on a continuous basis to candidates, a process that is is commonly known as 'on-tap' licensing. The RBI has appointed former RBI deputy governor, Shyamala Gopinath as the Chairperson of the panel.
The RBI guidelines for 'on-tap' licensing of universal banks in the private sector dated August 1, 2016 and Guidelines for 'on tap' Licensing of small finance banks in the private sector dated December 5, 2019, had indicated that the applications will be initially screened by the RBI to ensure prima facie eligibility of the applicants.
Sebi tightens rules for exchange disruptions
India’s market regulator said on Monday that stock exchanges and other market entities will need to switch quicker to their backup sites to resume operations in case of disruptions, weeks after a top exchange was shut down during trading.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in when critical systems are disrupted, institutions must declare a “disaster” within 30 minutes and take steps - including going to a back up - within the next 45 minutes.
On the technical glitch that happened on February 24, 2021, it said, "On 24th February, post link failure, the SAN system at the primary data centre stopped functioning, which was completely unexpected."
The NSE added that the problem was caused by failover logic implemented by the vendor which did not conform to NSE’s stated design requirements, coupled with issues in the configuration done by the SAN vendor. The stock exchange even said that the specific failure logic used by the vendor was not communicated to NSE and was not appropriate for NSE’s setup, which led to the SAN failure.
Supreme Court verdict in loan moratorium case on March 23
The Supreme Court would deliver its judgment in the loan moratorium case on March 23, news agency ANI reported. The verdict would be pronounced by a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah.
In its affidavit, the RBI said that any waiver of interest on interest would entail significant economic costs which cannot be absorbed by the banks without serious dent of their finances, and this, in turn, would have huge implications for the depositors and the broader financial stability.
Credit guarantee fund trust approves 6.19 lakh loan applications from small businesses in FY21
The credit guarantee fund trust for micro and small enterprises (CGTMSE), which extends collateral-free credit guarantee scheme for small businesses, has approved 6.19 lakh loans for an amount of Rs 31,349.39 crore in the FY21 so far as per the MSME Dashboard.
The number of applications approved by CGTMSE in FY20 was the highest since FY15, the data reveals. While 8,38,947 loan applications were approved in FY20, in FY21, 6,19,687 applications were approved.
The data reveals that so far twelve public sector banks have approved loans worth Rs 18,000 crore whereas eighteen private banks have approved loans worth Rs 4,556 crore. Other lending institutions include the regional rural banks, small finance banks, foreign banks and scheduled cooperative banks.
Sebi board set to have an action-packed meeting on March 25
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will be holding a board meeting on March 25. The market regulator’s board may have several items on the agenda for discussion, including a revamp in delisting regulations, de-classification of promoters, shareholding norms for Market Infrastructure Institutions (MII) and an innovation growth platform.
A source close to the development told Moneycontrol: “The Sebi board may discuss several issues on the primary and secondary market on March 25. In fact, the regulator’s plan for the primary and secondary market for the whole year may be discussed.”
Sebi may propose delisting regulations to address the gap in current regulations, which will increase transparency among public shareholders.
Lok Sabha passes Insurance Amendment Bill 2021, FDI raised to 74%
The Lok Sabha has passed the Insurance Amendment Bill 2021 leading to a hike in foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the sector to 74 percent. Rajya Sabha had passed the Bill on March 18. This came as a stark contrast to the previous FDI hike that took seven years to be passed in 2015 hiking the limit from 26 percent to 49 percent.
During the debate on this bill in the Lok Sabha on March 22, opposition leaders including INC's Manish Tiwari raised questions on why the government was keen to pass a bill that it was against earlier. Responding to these questions, finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that there was an urgent need in the insurance industry for the FDI limit to be hiked to 74 percent so that there is adequate capital available for the expansion of insurers.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 786.98 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net purchased shares worth Rs 542.70 crore in the Indian equity market on March 22, as per provisional data available on the NSE.
2 stocks under F&O ban on NSE
Vodafone Idea and SAIL are under the F&O ban for March 23. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.
With inputs from Reuters & other agencies