Cues: Focus shifts to US from EU worries; RBI move watched

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Cues: Focus shifts to US from EU worries; RBI move watched

A shift in focus from eurozone worries to a bettering US economy helped Wall Street end higher by 2%. Jobless claims in the US dropped to a three and a half year low last week that lent to the cheer.

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Moneycontrol Bureau

A shift in focus from eurozone worries to a bettering US economy helped Wall Street end higher by 2%. Jobless claims in the US dropped to a three and a half year low last week that lent to the cheer.

Signs of an improving economy in the US helped equity markets there, and also pulled along European shares to end higher yesterday. The DAX,CAC and FTSE all closed marginally up by half a percent to 1%.

Meanwhile, Asian markets have today opened in the green. Hopefully, this positivism in global markets will rub off on India too today! The Nifty has yesterday closed flat at 4762 points.

Moving over to the currency market, the euro inched slightly higher to 1.30 levels to the dollar. The dollar index is firm above 80 levels.

Crude, however, continued trending down. NYMEX crude slipped to USD 93 levels following eurozone worries and Brent prices too fell to USD 103. Gold is buzzing near its two and a half month low at USD 1570 per ounce. The precious metal has lost 9% in value this month, on track to be the first monthly fall since September, and also the weakest December since 2008.

Back home, all eyes are on RBI's mid-quarter review of monetary policy. Most say that it is likely to be a pause now and a CRR cut later in March.... Let us wait and watch to see what the RBI finally decides to do, lest it throws us some surprise like last time!

The RBI meanwhile came down on forex speculation with a heavy hand. It has restricted forex open positions of banks, and also restricted companies and FIIs from punting on the rupee even as the currency broke past USD 54.

Despite a tough quarter, advance tax collections indicate a firm corporate performance. Taxmen say collections from the top 100 companies have gone up nearly 10%.

Moving on to company action, There are reports that Reliance Industries may have invoked arbitration against the Indian government, but it has at the same time also sought the oil secretary's intervention to resolve pending issues which the company says is coming in the way of increasing gas production at KG-D6.

The company meanwhile regained its position of the Indian stock market's most influential company.

ET reports that Adani Enterprises may invest 4 billion dollars to develop coal mines. The report also says that the company is eying a possible listing on the London exchanges.

In a reprieve to airlines, IOC has cut domestic jet fuel prices by Rs 920 per kilo litre.

Major moves in the media business... Reliance Capital is said to be in talks with Bloomberg UTV to buy a majority stake in the company. Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters may buy 20-25% stake in Newswire18 for around Rs 250 crore.

Padma Venkatraman
padma.venkatraman@network18online.com