Stock Market Today: Top 10 things to know before the market opens today

Stock Market News

The market is expected to open in the red as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 85 points.

The Sensex fell 652 points to 59,646, while the Nifty slipped 198 points to 17,758 and formed a bearish Engulfing pattern on the daily charts.

As per the pivot charts, key support for the Nifty is placed at 17,649 followed by 17,539. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 17,930 and 18,102.

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

The US stocks fell and the dollar rose on Friday, even as Treasury yields gained, with traders anxious about inflation and what the Federal Reserve will do to combat it. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.86 percent, to 33,706.15, the S&P 500 lost 1.29 percent, to 4,228.37, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 2 percent, to 12,705.22.

Asian Markets

Asian shares got off to a rocky start on Monday while the dollar remained in demand amid concerns most major central banks are committed to raising interest rates no matter the risks to growth.

South Korea's KOSPI shed 1.1 percent while Japan's Nikkei fell 1 percent, though it has drawn support from a recent sharp reversal in the yen.

SGX Nifty

Trends in SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 85 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 17,658 levels on the Singaporean exchange.

Fed to slow to 50 basis-point hike in September, recession worries grow, Reuters poll shows

The US Federal Reserve will raise rates by 50 basis points in September amid expectations inflation has peaked and growing recession worries, according to economists in a Reuters poll, who said the risks were skewed towards a higher peak.

Still around a four-decade high, inflation eased last month, driving Fed funds futures to narrowly switch their pricing to a 50 basis point hike in September after 75 basis point moves in June and July. Most economists in an August 16-19 Reuters poll predicted a half percentage point hike next month, the same as in the last poll, which would take the key interest rate to 2.75-3.00 percent.

China set to lower lending benchmarks Monday to revive wobbly economy

China is widely expected to lower its benchmark lending rates on Monday, a Reuters survey showed, with a vast majority of participants predicting a deeper cut to the mortgage reference to lift the ailing property sector and the overall economy.

The loan prime rate (LPR), which banks normally charge their best clients, is set by 18 designated commercial banks who submit proposed rates to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

FPIs pump Rs 44,500 crore into Indian equities in three weeks of August

After turning net buyers last month, foreign investors have shown tremendous enthusiasm for Indian equities and have infused close to Rs 44,500 crore in August so far amid softening of inflation in the US and falling dollar index. This was way higher than a net investment of nearly Rs 5,000 crore by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) in entire July, data with depositories showed.

India's foreign exchange reserves decline to $570.74 billion

The country's foreign exchange reserves fell $2.238 billion to $570.74 billion in the week ended August 12, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. In the previous week ended August 5, the foreign exchange reserves declined $897 million to $572.978 billion.

The fall in the reserves in the reporting week ended August 12 was on account a decline in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by RBI on Friday. FCA declined $2.652 billion to $506.994 billion, the data showed.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 1,110.90 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,633.21 crore on August 19, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Dollar driven to five-week high by Fed rate hike forecasts

The US dollar index hit a five-week high and posted its biggest weekly gain since April 2020 on Friday as investors adjusted for the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will keep hiking rates to battle inflation. The dollar index rose 0.61 percent to 108.13, its highest since July 15, while the euro dropped 0.54 percent to $1.0033, its lowest since the same date.

The greenback gained 0.73 percent to 136.87 against the Japanese yen , the strongest since July 27. Sterling tumbled 1.03 percent to $1.1813 and had its biggest weekly drop against the dollar since September 2020.

Stocks under F&O ban on NSE

Three stocks—Balrampur Chini Mills, Delta Corp, and Tata Chemicals—will be under the NSE F&O ban list for August 22. 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 and other agencies