1. US stocks | All three main indices on Wall Street dropped Friday with investors wary of a more hawkish stance from the US Federal Reserve, while the dollar posted the strongest gains in over a year and oil prices continued a steady climb. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 533.37 points, or 1.58 percent, to 33,290.08, marking the worst week for the blue-chip index since January. The S&P 500 lost 55.41 points, or 1.31 percent, to close at 4,166.45, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 130.97 points, or 0.92 percent, to end at 14,030.38.
2. Asian markets | Asian stocks declined in Monday morning trade, as Japan’s markets plummeted in the morning. The Nikkei 225 fell 3.18 percent, while the Topix index shed 2.44 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 1.45 percent and mainland Chinese stocks fell in early trade as the Shanghai composite declined 0.43 percent and the Shenzhen component shed 0.717 percent. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.71 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.97 percent lower.
3. Indian market on Friday | Indian equity benchmark indices recovered from the day’s losses to end flat on Friday. The Sensex gained 21.12 points, or 0.04 percent to close at 52,344.45, while the Nifty ended 8.05 points, or 0.05 percent lower at 15,683.35. Broader markets underperformed the benchmarks as the Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 indices closed 1.05 percent and 0.88 percent lower, respectively. Among sectors, Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Financial Services recovered from intra-day lows to end flat while Nifty FMCG ended higher. Selling was seen in PSU Banks, metal, IT, auto and pharma indices.
4. Crude oil | Oil prices nudged up on Monday, underpinned by strong demand during the summer driving season and a pause in talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal that could indicate a delay in the resumption of supplies from the OPEC producer. Brent crude futures for August gained 30 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $73.81 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for July was at $71.96 a barrel, up 32 cents, or 0.5 percent. (Image: Reuters)
5. Rupee | The rupee on Friday broke its eight-session losing streak to end 22 paise higher at 73.86 against the US dollar, taking cues from stronger Asian currencies and lower crude oil prices. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit opened lower at 74.10 per dollar from the previous close of 74.08. It touched a low of 74.27 during the day following a weak trend in domestic equities, before clawing back lost ground to end at 73.86.
6. Support from all sides needed to nurture economic recovery hit by 2nd wave of COVID: RBI Guv | Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das has pitched for policy support from all sides -- fiscal, monetary and sectoral -- to nurture recovery of the economy hit by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The dent in economic activity due to the second wave of the pandemic during April-May necessitated the continuation of monetary measures to support the process of economic recovery to make it durable, Das had said while participating in the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) earlier in the month.
7. Draft cabinet note floated for 100% FDI in oil PSUs approved for disinvestment | The commerce and industry ministry has floated a draft cabinet note seeking inter-ministerial views on a proposal to allow up to 100 percent foreign investment under automatic route in oil and gas PSUs, which have an 'in-principle' approval for disinvestment, PTI reported. The move, if approved by the union cabinet, would facilitate the privatisation of India’s second-biggest oil refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).
8. Sebi comes out with new guidelines on MF investment in interest rate swap | Markets regulator Sebi on Friday put in place fresh guidelines for the participation of mutual fund schemes in interest rate swap, a derivative product. Mutual funds can enter into plain vanilla Interest Rate Swaps (IRS) for hedging purposes.
9. FPIs invest Rs 13,667 cr in Indian mkts in June so far | Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in a net Rs 13,667 crore so far in June as Indian markets continued to remain attractive to overseas investors. According to depositories data, FPIs invested Rs 15,312 crore in equities between June 1 and June 18. During the same period, overseas investors withdrew Rs 1,645 crore from the debt segment.
10. Forex reserves rise $3.07 bn to lifetime high of $608.08 bn | The country’s foreign exchange reserves surged by $3.074 billion to reach a record high of $608.081 billion in the week ended June 11, the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed on Friday.