SGX Nifty up 10 points; here's what changed for market while you were sleeping

Domestic equity markets are set to kick off the new week on a muted note, thanks to directionaless cues from global peers. US Stocks settled almost flat over the weekend trade, whereas Asian peers came under pressure amid inflation worries.

Here's breaking down the pre-market actions:

STATE OF THE MARKETS

SGX Nifty signals a flat start
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 10 points, or 0.06 per cent, higher at 16,264.5, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a muted start on Monday.

• Tech View: Nifty50 on Friday capitalised on a strong gap-up start as the index ended almost at day's higher. In the process, it breached its immediate resistance level of 16,150 and formed a bullish candle both daily and weekly scales. Analysts said more upside is in the offing and advised traders to be cautiously bullish for the week ahead.

• India VIX: The fear gauge dropped as much as 6 per cent to 23.10 level on Friday over its close at 24.56 on Thursday.

Asian shares majorly lower
Asian stocks came under pressure on Monday as persistent worries about inflation and rising interest rates dogged the global economic outlook and fresh selling in technology stocks weighed on Chinese markets. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 0.43 per cent.

• Japan's Nikkei surged 0.37%
• Australia's ASX 200 gained 0.04%
• South Korea's Kospi shed 0.19%
• New Zealand's DJ advanced 0.45%
• China's Shanghai dropped 0.44%
• Hong Kong's Hang Seng tanked 1.48%

US stocks settled mixed
Wall Street ended mixed on Friday after a volatile session that saw Tesla slump and other growth stocks also lose ground. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq logged their seventh straight week of losses, their longest losing streak since the end of the dotcom bubble in 2001.

• Dow Jones inched up 0.03% to 31,261.90
• S&P 500 added 0.01% to 3,901.36
• Nasdaq retreated 0.30% to 11,354.62

Dollar wobbles lower
The dollar began the week on the back foot, following its first weekly loss in nearly two months, as investors cut bets on further dollar gains from rising US rates and turned hopeful that loosening lockdowns in China can help global growth.
Dollar index dropped to 102.790
Euro was rose to $1.0586
Pound held steady to $1.2527
Yen moved up to 127.83 per dollar
Yuan exchanged hands at 6.6861 against the greenback

Oil prices climbed
Oil prices rose in early trade on Monday with US fuel demand, tight supply and a slightly weaker US dollar supporting the market, as Shanghai prepares to reopen after a two-month lockdown fuelled worries about a sharp slowdown in growth.

Brent crude futures rose 82 cents to $113.37 a barrel at 0126 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 69 cents, or 0.6 per cent, to $110.97 a barrel, adding to last week's small gains for both contracts.

FIIs sell shares worth Rs 1,265 cr
Net-net, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned sellers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 1,265.41 crore, data available with NSE suggested. DIIs turned net buyers to the tune of Rs 2,148.95 crore, data suggests. FPIs have dumped Indian equities worth over Rs 35,000 crore in May so far.

Q4 earnings today
Divis Laboratories, Bharat Electronics, Zomato, Steel Authority of India, The New India Assurance Company, Ramco Cements, Birlasoft, Graphite India, Vaibhav Global, HLE Glasscoat, Rupa and Company, Data Patterns, HG Infra Engineering are among companies that will announce their earnings today.

Stocks in F&O ban today
Five stocks, namely GNFC, Indiabulls Housing Finance, BHEL Punjab National Bank and Delta Corp, are under the F&O ban for Monday, May 23. 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 slipped 7 paise to close at an all-time low of 77.63 against US dollar on Friday, weighed down by unabated foreign fund outflows and elevated crude oil prices.

10-year bonds: India 10-year bond jumped 0.53 per cent to 7.35 after trading in the 7.33 - 7.36 range on Friday.

Call rates: The overnight call money rate weighted average stood at 4.00 per cent on Friday, according to RBI data. It moved in a range of 2.30-4.35 per cent.