SGX Nifty up 20 points; here's what changed for market while you were sleeping

Indian equity markets were dragged lower on Thursday as profit booking emerged in SBI and ITC despite posting strong results.

"Nifty is struggling for the last 3 days and is finding hurdles at 18,300-18,400 zones. Markets are likely to remain consolidative and take cues from global developments. Overall, we remain positive on the market and view the current decline as a buying opportunity," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal.

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 17.5 points, or 0.10 per cent, higher at 18,196, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for positive start on Friday.

• Tech View: Nifty has now tilted towards the short side with the number of calls being written for the monthly expiry of May has become significantly higher than that of the put side. The support zone in Bank Nifty is still intact, though between 43500 and 42800. This should still give us a move towards the all-time high levels. For Nifty, as long as the highest put writers are at the 18000 level, this will act as a strong support and one should become bearish only below the 17800 level.
• India VIX: India VIX, which is a measure of the fear in the markets, fell 2.37% to settle at 12.80 levels.

US stocks up
U.S. stocks rallied and the dollar reached a seven-week peak on Thursday as discount retail giant Walmart Inc raised its sales outlook and strong economic data calmed recession fears while also dampening hopes the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates before year-end.

Asian shares advance
Asian stocks advanced alongside US equity futures on rising hopes that lawmakers in Washington will avert a first-ever US default.

Oil prices fall
Oil prices fell slightly in early Asian trade on Friday as optimism that a U.S. debt default will be avoided weighed against sticky inflation data that could portend more interest rate hikes from global central banks.

Dollar gains
The dollar firmed near a six-month peak against the yen on Friday on the back of rising U.S. Treasury yields, as optimism over debt ceiling talks in Washington raised expectations of higher-for-longer interest rates.


Stocks in F&O ban today
1) Balrampur Chini Mills

2) LIC Housing Finance

3) Manappuram Finance

4) Punjab National Bank

5) Delta Corp

6) GNFC

7) Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail

8) L&T Finance Holdings

Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit.

FII/DII action
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continue to remain buyers, investing Rs 970 crore on Thursday. DIIs sold shares worth Rs 849 crore today.

Rupee
The rupee fell 25 paise to close at 82.62 against the US currency on Thursday, weighed down by a strong greenback in the overseas market and a negative trend in domestic equities.

Corporate results
NTPC, Zomato, JSW Steel, Punjab National Bank, Delhivery, Bandhan Bank and a slew of other companies will announce their quarterly results today.