Gift Nifty, mixed trend in Asian markets to Wall Street corporate earnings – key triggers for Indian stock market today

Markets anticipate a 25 basis points interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank later this week and possibly the end of the tightening cycle in both.

Investors will also focus on a slew of corporate earnings this week, including that of Alphabet, Meta, Intel, Microsoft, GE, AT&T, Boeing, Coca Cola, Ford, among others, in the US.

In Asia, Japan’s manufacturing activity extended declines in July, as the au Jibun Bank flash Japan manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 49.4 in July from 49.8 in June.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan on Friday will likely keep its super-loose policy intact, according to analysts.

On the domestic front, the equity markets continued to rally last week and made a series of fresh closing all time highs amid abated inflow of FII money and improved sentiments due to healthy corporate results so far, especially from the banking sector.

“All eyes will be on the US Fed and ECB policy meeting next week. Investors would also take cues from various macro data that would be released. With the result season picking up pace, we expect a lot of stock-specific action and provide direction to domestic equities in the coming week,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Also Read: Buy or sell: Vaishali Parekh recommends three stocks to buy today — 24th July

Asian Markets

Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.95% and the Topix rose 0.57%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.44%, while the Kosdaq declined 1.07%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures traded around 600 points lower at 18,953.

Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.13%.

Meanwhile, Gift Nifty was trading lower at 19,732 as compared to the Nifty’s Friday’s close of 19,745.00, indicating a lower start for the Indian benchmark index.

Also Read: Q1 results, US Fed policy, FII flows and more: Key triggers for stock markets this week

Wall Street

US stocks closed mixed on Friday. The S&P 500 edged up by 1.47 points, or 0.03%, to 4,536.34, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 30.50 points, or 0.22%, to 14,032.81. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 2.51 points, or 0.1%, to 35,227.69, witnessing the 10th straight day of advances, its longest rally in almost six years.

For the week, the S&P 500 added 0.7%, the Nasdaq fell 0.6% and the Dow rose 2.1%.

Among stocks, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Netflix fell over 2% each. American Express lost 3.9%, while SLB declined 2.2%.

Also Read: Wall Street week ahead: Investors to focus on Fed meet, earnings from Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet

Europe

European shares ended mixed Friday.

Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.23% at 7,663.73, while Germany’s Frankfurt DAX declined 0.17% to 16,177.22. France’s CAC 40 gained 0.65% to 7,432.77.

Crude Oil

Crude oil prices declined as traders await more rate hike cues from US and European central banks.

Brent crude futures fell 0.47% to $80.69 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude declined 0.44% to $76.73 a barrel.

Read here: Oil price falls amid expectations of another Fed rate hike

Gold price today

Gold prices rose as investors awaited a key US Federal Reserve meeting that could see the central bank pausing interest rate hikes after July.

Spot gold rose 0.05% to $1,961.27, while US gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,963.10.

Currencies

The US dollar index was steady at 101.04, holding near its over one-week peak. The yen was nursing losses at 141.71 to the dollar and at 157.58 to the euro. The euro held at $1.1128.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Updated: 24 Jul 2023, 07:16 AM IST