PremiumIndian indices may witness a flat to negative start on Monday. On Monday, the indices continued their winning streak for the second straight session, supported by the HDFC Bank and HDFC merger. The Wall Street ended higher with Twitter leading the gains after Elon Musk became the largest shareholder of the microblogging site. This week, Indian investors will closely monitor the outcome of the RBI's monetary policy committee's meeting on Friday, while crude prices and the Russia-Ukraine war continue to remain major headwinds. In Asia, shares were muted in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, while that in Australia and Shanghai advanced.
Stocks in Asia were mixed Tuesday and crude oil climbed as investors evaluated the prospect of tougher sanctions against Russia for alleged atrocities during its war in Ukraine.
Shares rose in Australia but retreated in Japan and South Korea, where faster inflation added to the case for more interest-rate hikes. U.S. equity futures dipped after the technology sector bolstered Wall Street on Monday.
The yen hit an intraday high against the dollar following comments from Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who said its current moves are somewhat rapid. The yen is this year’s weakest performer in the Group-of-10 basket.
Commodities including oil advanced amid renewed fears about supply disruptions stemming from the war. The European Union is working on new Russian sanctions, while the U.S. said it may impose further penalties this week. Russia rejected the allegations of war crimes.
Treasuries were mixed, with the spotlight remaining on flat or inverted yield curves pointing to an economic downturn should the Federal Reserve deliver a series of aggressive rate increases to tamp high inflation.
Tokyo shares opened higher Tuesday following gains on Wall Street led by tech giants, but soon receded on profit-taking, with investors cautious over uncertainties linked to Ukraine.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index initially climbed at the open, but dipped 0.11 percent, or 31.91 points, to 27,705.28 in early trade.
The broader Topix index fell 0.26 percent, or 5.08 points, to 1,948.55.
Mizuho Securities said in a note that "buying was likely to dominate today, with equities, particularly high-tech stocks, expected to be buoyed by the rise in the Nasdaq index."
Wall Street's three major equity indexes rose about 1% on the average with shares of Twitter, particularly, outperforming on news that flamboyant tech-entrepreneur and influencer Elon Musk had become the largest shareholder in the microblogging site.
The three indexes - the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite - also rose broadly for a second day in a row after closing first quarter trading last week with the biggest slump since the coronavirus breakout of two years ago.
Twitter jumped 27% in price, closing up $10.66 at $49.97 per share after Musk, the chief executive of electric carmaker Tesla, bought almost 73.5 million shares in the company amounting to a passive stake of 9.2%.
Musk' purchase, worth nearly $3 billion, comes less than two weeks after he criticized the company, polling people on Twitter about whether Twitter adheres to free speech principles. An entrepreneur known for courting controversy and for getting into trouble with stock market regulators, Musk has also polled Twitter users on whether he should sell his stake in Tesla. Besides these, he also constantly tweets about cryptocurrencies, another one of his passions.
Wedbush Securities said it expects Musk's buy into Twitter to be the start of his bid to raise his influence on the site.
"We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board/management that could ultimately lead to an active stake and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter," the broker said in a note.
The rally on Twitter helped fire up Wall Street's broader tech sector.
The Nasdaq Composite - which houses the biggest technology names of the world, including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google - closed up 271 points, or 1.9%, at 14,533.
The S&P500 - which groups the top 500 US stocks - finished up 38 points, or 0.8%, at 4,584.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which lists travel, aviation and cross-industry value stocks, settled up 104 points, or 0.3%, at 34,922.
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