The market is expected to open gap-down as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 317 points.
On Wednesday, the Sensex was down 109.94 points, or 0.20 percent, at 54,208.53, and the Nifty was down 19 points, or 0.12 percent, at 16,240.30.
As per the pivot charts, the key support level for the Nifty is placed at 16,168, followed by 16,095. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 16,356 and 16,472.
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 ended sharply lower on Wednesday, with Target losing around a quarter of its stock market value and highlighting worries about the US economy after the retailer became the latest victim of surging prices.
It was the worst one-day loss for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average since June 2020.
The S&P 500 declined 4.04 percent to end the session at 3,923.68 points.
The Nasdaq declined 4.73 percent to 11,418.15 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.57 percent to 31,490.07 points.
Asian Markets
Asian stocks tracked a steep Wall Street selloff on Thursday, as investors fretted over rising global inflation, China's zero-COVID policy and the Ukraine war, while the safe-haven dollar held most of its strong overnight gains.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2 percent in early Asian trading hours, the first daily decline in a week. Japan's Nikkei tumbled 2.4 percent.
SGX Nifty
SGX Nifty trends indicate a gap-down opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 317 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 15,918.50 levels on the Singaporean exchange.
Imported coal-based power generators ask Power ministry for higher tariff to restart units: Sources
Imported coal-based power producers have made representation to the government to revisit the tariff set by a committee as a part of the government’s plan to get power plants totalling around 8,000 MW to restart, three sources in the know said.
Tata Power Company has moved to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), asking for a higher tariff than the one set by the committee, and had a hearing on the matter on May 17.
The ministry of power will be meeting some of these imported coal-based power generators on May 19.
Ukraine-Russia crisis won’t derail recovery in Indian economy, says Moody’s
Global rating agency Moody’s Investor Service does not see the Russia-Ukraine war to derail India's economic recovery as the country has come back on track following a gruelling COVID-19 pandemic, the rating agency said in a note.
“Several months into the conflict, fears over the impact have moderated,” Moody’s said in the 'Banking–Emerging markets: New risks from Ukraine conflict create diverging paths for emerging market banks' note.
The rating agency said that it expects India’s real GDP to grow at 8.2 percent in 2022-23, the fastest expansion among G20 countries, partly reflecting ongoing base effects from pandemic-led disruptions.
UK inflation hits 40-year high of 9.0%, squeezing households harder
British inflation surged last month to its highest annual rate since 1982, pressuring finance minister Rishi Sunak to offer more help for households and the Bank of England to keep raising interest rates despite a risk of recession.
Consumer price inflation hit 9 percent in April, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, surpassing the peaks of the early 1990s recession that many Britons remember for sky-high interest rates and widespread mortgage defaults.
ITC Q4 net profit rises 11.7% YoY to Rs 4,196 crore; revenue grows 15.3%
ITC Limited (ITC), on May 18, reported an 11.7 percent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 4,196 crore for the fourth quarter of FY2021-22 as against Rs 3,755 crore recorded a year ago. On a sequential basis, the profit has inched up 3.4 percent from Rs 4,057 crore earned during the October–December period.
Consolidated revenue for the largest cigarette maker in India rose 15.3 percent on-year to Rs 17,754 crore as compared to a revenue of Rs 15,404 crore registered in the year-ago quarter. On a sequential basis, the revenue was down 3.3 percent from the revenue of Rs 18,366 crore recorded in the previous quarter.
Results on May 19
HPCL, Ashok Leyland, Bosch, Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals, Container Corporation of India, Endurance Technologies, Gland Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Godrej Consumer Products, Novartis India, Ramco Systems, Punjab & Sind Bank, Rossari Biotech, Ujjivan Financial Services, and Suryoday Small Finance Bank will be in focus ahead of March quarter earnings on May 19.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth Rs 1,254.64 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained net buyers, to the tune of Rs 375.61 crore worth of shares on May 18, as per provisional data available on the NSE.
Four stocks – Delta Corp, GNFC, Indiabulls Housing Finance, and Punjab National Bank – are under the F&O ban for May 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 and other agencies
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