What changed for the market while you were sleeping? Top 10 things to know

The Indian stock market is expected to open in the red as trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the index in India with a 51-point loss.

The S&P BSE Sensex was down 379.14 points at 51,324.69 on February 18 while the Nifty50 index declined 89.90 points to 15,119. According to pivot charts, the key support levels for the Nifty are placed at 15,047.73, followed by 14,976.47. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 15,220.53 and 15,322.07.

Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in 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

Stocks on Wall Street closed lower on Thursday as investors shifted out of big technology names, while an unexpected rise in weekly U.S. jobless claims pointed to a fragile recovery in the labour market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 119.68 points, or 0.38%, to 31,493.34, the S&P 500 lost 17.36 points, or 0.44%, to 3,913.97 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 100.14 points, or 0.72%, to 13,865.36.

Asian Markets

Asian stocks were set to pull back on Friday, following a dip on Wall Street as disappointing U.S. jobs data fanned concerns the economic recovery from the coronavirus was losing momentum.

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.49% in early trading, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures were down 0.08%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were down 0.44%.

SGX Nifty

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the index in India with a 51 points loss. The Nifty futures were trading at 15,064 on the Singaporean Exchange around 07:30 hours IST.

Unemployment rate dropped to 6.5% in January 2021: CMIE data

The unemployment rate in the country fell to 6.5 percent in January 2021 from 9.1 percent in December 2020 and the employment rate rose to 37.9 percent from 36.9 percent in the same period, according to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data.

Nearly 12 million additional people found employment during January with the number of employed persons increasing to 400.7 million in January 2021 from 388.8 million in December 2020. This is the biggest jump in the workforce addition in a month since the onset of the lockdown. The total unemployed who were willing to work but did not have any employment in January 2021 was 40 million. While this is a large number, it is the lowest in over two years, the report noted.

Japan's consumer price decline slows, weak demand keeps outlook murky

Japan’s core consumer prices marked the sixth straight month of annual declines in January but the pace of falls slowed, offering some relief for policymakers worried about deflationary pressures the economy face from the coronavirus pandemic.

Core consumer prices, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, fell 0.6% in January from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, compared with a median market forecast for a 0.7% drop.

Oil falls after surging past $65 on Texas freeze

Oil prices fell on Thursday despite a sharp drop in U.S. crude inventories, as market participants took profits following days of buying spurred by a cold snap in the largest U.S. energy-producing state.
Brent crude fell 41 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $63.93 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 62 cents, or 1%, to settle at $60.52 a barrel, after earlier reaching $62.26, the highest since January 2020.

India's domestic air passenger traffic down 40% to 77.34 lakh in January

India's domestic air passenger traffic declined around 40 percent to 77.34 lakh in January 2021 over the year-ago period as the pandemic continues to hit air travel demand, as per the monthly traffic data released by the aviation regulator, DGCA on Thursday.

The total number of passengers flown by the Indian carriers on domestic routes in January 2020 was 1.27 crore. The passenger load factor during the previous month has shown a declining trend compared to December primarily due to the tourist season, the DGCA said.

US jobless claims jump to 861,000 as layoffs stay high

The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week to 861,000, evidence that layoffs remain painfully high despite a steady drop in the number of confirmed viral infections. Applications from laid-off workers rose 13,000 from the previous week, which was revised sharply higher, the Labor Department said Thursday. Before the virus erupted in the United States last March, weekly applications for unemployment benefits had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession of 2008-2009.

Results on February 19

Mahindra CIE Automotive, Asian Tea & Exports, Binani Industries, Chromatic India, Sunedison Infrastructure, Uniply Decor, Uniply Industries and Uniworth Securities will announce their quarterly earnings on February 19.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 903.07 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,217.34 crore in the Indian equity market on February 18, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

4 stocks under F&O ban on NSE

BHEL, Canara Bank, Vodafone Idea and SAIL are under the F&O ban for February 19. 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