SGX Nifty up 210 points; here's what changed for market while you were sleeping

Indian equity markets are set for a strong opening on Friday amid a strong close for US stocks and the US Fed chair's comments on recession. Asian peers were mostly up but the gains were not much. US Stocks also gained about a per cent during the overnight trade. Traders will track Q1 earnings for stock-specific action. Here's breaking down the pre-market actions:

STATE OF THE MARKETS

SGX Nifty signals a positive start
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 210 points, or 1.24 per cent, higher at 17,157, signalling that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Friday.

• Tech View: Nifty50 on Thursday made an upside breakout, as the index closed above 16,900, breaching a slew of strong resistance hurdles. The index made a gap-up start and still ended up forming a strong bullish candle on the daily scale.
• India VIX: The fear gauge plunged sharply over 6 per cent to 17.01 level on Thursday over its close at 18.13 on Wednesday.

Asian shares open mostly higher
Asian stocks opened mostly higher on Friday, extending rallies on Wall Street, after a contraction of the US economy sparked expectations of a slowdown in Federal Reserve rate hikes. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up by merely 0.05 per cent.

• Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.46%
• Australia's ASX 200 gained 0.81%
• New Zealand's DJ jumped 0.70%
• South Korea's Kospi surged 0.71%
• China's Shanghai dropped 0.19%
• Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.03%

Wall Street rally sharply
US stocks on Thursday rallied for a second day, with all three major indexes ending up more than 1 per cent as data showing a second consecutive quarterly contraction in the economy fueled investor speculation the Federal Reserve may not need to be as aggressive with interest rate hikes as some had feared.

• Dow Jones rallied 1.03% to 32,529.63
• S&P 500 jumped 1.21% to 4,072.43
• Nasdaq surged 1.08% to 12,162.59

Dollar continues to struggle
The dollar languished near a six-week low to the yen amid a sharp retreat in Treasury yields after investors interpreted a shrinking US economy as one more reason for the Federal Reserve to ease its foot off the tightening pedal.

• Dollar index pinned at 106.25
• Euro traded flat at $1.01945
• Pound hovered to $1.21725
• Yen was recovered to 134.39 per dollar
• Yuan exchanged hands at 6.7474 against the greenback

Oil prices rise on tight supply
Oil prices gained about $1 in early trade on Friday, lifted by supply concerns and a weaker US dollar as attention turns to what OPEC and allies including Russia agree at a meeting next week marking the end of their 2020 output reduction pact.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for September delivery rose $1.09, or 1.1 per cent, to $97.51 a barrel by 0041 GMT. Brent crude futures for September settlement, due to expire on Friday, rose 86 cents, or 0.8 per cent, to $108.00 a barrel.

FIIs buy shares worth Rs 1,638 cr
Net-net, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned buyers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 1637.69 crore, data available with NSE suggested. However, DIIs turned net buyers to the tune of Rs 600.29 crore, data suggests.

Q1 results today
HDFC, Sun Pharmaceutical, NTPC, HDFC Life Insurance, Indian Oil Corp, DLF, Ashok Leyland, Cipla, Cholamandalam Investment & Finance, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Piramal Enterprises, Star Health and Allied Insurance and GMR Infra are among the companies that will announce their earnings for the quarter ended June 2022.

Stocks in F&O ban today
As we are in the beginning of the new series, none of the stocks are under the F&O ban for Friday, July 29. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 per cent of the market-wide position limit.

MONEY MARKETS
Rupee: The rupee appreciated 22 paise to close at 79.69 against the US dollar on Thursday, as a rally in the domestic equities and less hawkish signals from the US Fed triggered risk-on sentiments in the markets.

10-year bonds: India 10-year bond dropped about 0.08 per cent to 7.33 after trading in 7.31 - 7.37 range on Thursday.

Call rates: The overnight call money rate weighted average stood at 5.07 per cent on Wednesday, according to RBI data. It moved in a range of 3.30-5.45 per cent.