LIVE updates from the stock market, Wednesday, October 9, 2024: GIFT Nifty futures, which were trading marginally ahead at 25,151.50 at 8:00 am, from the last close of Nifty futures at 25,131, indicated a mild positive trend for the markets open today.
This was ahead of an important press conference by the RBI Governor to announce the decision of the central bank’s monetary policy meeting, apart from commenting on the inflation and GDP growth forecasts.
Markets in the Asia-Pacific region, meanwhile, fell on Wednesday, with mainland China leading the losses.
Back home, investors in India will be watching the announcement of the RBI Monetary Policy Committee decision by Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das scheduled for 10am.
The governor of India’s central bank is expected to announce he will keep interest rates at current levels, but his comments on inflation expectations and GDP growth estimates are what investors will be watching.
Indian stock markets returned to their winning ways on Tuesday, breaking their five-day losing streak.
The BSE Sensex today gained 584.81 points, or 0.72 percent, to end at 81,634.8 levels. The Nifty50 also closed at 25,013.15, up 217.38 points or 0.88 percent, as investors digested the Assembly election results in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, while the dizzying rally in Chinese stocks moderated.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap index rose 1.86 percent and the BSE SmallCap index rose 2.44 percent. The broader indices outperformed the benchmark indices today.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.29 percent after plunging 9.41 percent to close at 20,926.79 the day before.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index fell 4.33 percent, while the Shanghai Composite fell 3.68 percent.
Apart from that, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.8 percent, and the broader Topix rose 0.31 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.15 percent, while South Korean markets remained closed for a holiday.
The day before, a gauge of global stocks rose after a rally on Wall Street, overshadowing disappointment over the lack of detail in China’s stimulus measures as investors’ focus shifts to upcoming US inflation data and corporate earnings.
On Wall Street, US stocks closed sharply higher after the benchmark S&P 500 recovered from a nearly 1 percent decline a day earlier, with a more than 2 percent jump in technology stocks providing key support.
Stock markets stumbled on Monday on growing concerns about a wider conflict in the Middle East and after last week’s solid US payrolls report prompted a reassessment of the size and pace of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.
Investors are also keeping an eye on Thursday’s inflation figures with the release of the latest consumer price index (CPI), while banks are set to kick off corporate earnings season at the end of this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 126.13 points, or 0.30 percent, to 42,080.37, the S&P 500 rose 55.19 points, or 0.97 percent, to 5,751.13 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 259.01 points , or 1.45 percent, to 18,182.92.
European shares closed lower as a lack of details on China’s long-awaited fiscal stimulus weighed on sectors linked to the world’s second-largest economy, such as mining and luxury goods.
The MSCI index for shares around the world rose 1.24 points, or 0.15 percent, to 844.96. The STOXX 600 index ended 0.55 percent lower.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 9.4 percent, the biggest decline since 2008, wiping out some of the big gains made during a Chinese holiday, after government economic planner Zheng Shanjie told reporters said China is “confident” of achieving its 2024 economic targets and would take 200 billion yuan ($28.36 billion) from next year’s budget to spend on investment projects and supporting local governments.
But the inability to detail new or sweeping measures in sufficient detail raised concerns about China’s commitment to lifting the economy out of the current slump.
The Shanghai Composite and the blue-chip CSI300, both closed for the holidays, finished 4.6 percent and 5.9 percent higher, respectively, compared with previous gains of more than 10 percent.
U.S. Treasury yields were slightly lower on choppy trading, with factors such as Federal Reserve monetary policy, investor positioning and the economic outlook influencing market moves.
According to CME’s FedWatch Tool, expectations for a 25 basis point rate cut by the Fed at its November meeting are at 87.3 percent.
The yield on US 10-year benchmark bonds fell 0.6 basis point to 4.02 percent.
Oil prices fell following a recent rally fueled by rising hostilities in the Middle East.
U.S. crude fell 4.63 percent to $73.57 per barrel, and Brent plummeted to $77.18 per barrel, also down 4.63 percent.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was unchanged at 102.48, while the euro rose 0.04 percent to $1.0978.
(With input from Reuters.)