Indian stock market: 8 key things that changed for market over weekend - Gift Nifty, Dow Jones at record to gold prices

Indian stock market: The Indian equity market indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, are expected to open higher on Monday, extending its upward momentum seen last week, fuelled by an oversized interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.

Asian markets traded lower, while the US stock market ended mixed last Friday, with the Dow Jones hitting record high levels.

The US Federal Reserve began its monetary-easing cycle last week and projected a period of steady economic growth and low unemployment and inflation. Fed futures traders have priced in 75 bps in rate cuts by the end of this year, and nearly 200 bps in cuts by December 2025 that will take the Fed’s policy rate by the end of 2025 to 2.75%, according to CME FedWatch.

On Friday, the Indian stock market indices ended over a percent higher led by heavy buying across the board.

The Sensex spiked 1,359.51 points, or 1.63%, to close at 84,544.31, while the Nifty 50 settled 375.15 points, or 1.48%, higher at 25,790.95.

“Markets are gradually climbing up and we expect this positive momentum to continue next week backed by strong FII inflow, healthy domestic macros, and receding concern about the US economy slowing down,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

This week, investors will closely monitor key market triggers such as domestic and global macroeconomic data, monthly derivatives expiry, flows of foreign funds, trends in crude oil prices, and other key global market cues.

Here are key global market cues for Sensex today:

Asian Markets

Asian markets traded lower on Monday ahead of central bank meetings and key economic data in the region. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed, after bouncing 2.7% last week.

Japan’s Nikkei was closed for a public holiday but futures were trading higher. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.15% while the Kosdaq was flat. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures indicated a lower opening. China CSI 300 futures were lower than their last close.

Gift Nifty Today

Gift Nifty was trading around 25,890 level, a premium of nearly 100 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close, indicating a gap-up start for the Indian stock market indices.

Wall Street

US stock market ended mixed on Friday after a strong rally in the prior session, with the Dow Jones hitting a record.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 38.17 points, or 0.09%, to 42,063.36, while the S&P 500 fell 11.09 points, or 0.19%, to 5,702.55 and the Nasdaq Composite declined 65.66 points, or 0.36%, to 17,948.32.

Constellation Energy shares jumped 22.29%, while Intel share price gained 3.31%. FedEx stock price plunged 15.23% and Nike shares jumped 6.84%.

US Federal Reserve

US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he supported a larger rate cut last week because he is now worried the pace of price increases is undershooting the Fed's target. Waller’s comments increased expectations the central bank will cut interest rates by 50 basis points at its November meeting.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said she favored a 25 bps reduction because inflation remains above the 2% target and she worried the public would misinterpret the larger move as “a premature declaration of victory.”

RBI Bulletin

Food price volatility remains a contingent risk even as the overall retail inflation has remained below the target of 4% for the second consecutive month in August, said the latest Bulletin of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Dollar

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against major currencies, gained slightly to 100.8, continuing to stay above the one-year low it hit last week. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was around 144.08, after hitting its two-week high at 144.50 yen last week.

Oil Prices

Crude oil prices traded higher amid concerns over escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Brent crude futures for November gained 0.3% to $74.69 a barrel, while US crude futures for November rose 0.3%, at $71.22.

Gold Rate Today

Gold prices traded near record highs on the US Federal Reserve’s bold interest rate cut and signs that further reductions were on the horizon.

Spot gold steadied near $2,619.37 per ounce, trading near a record high hit on Friday. US gold futures edged 0.1% lower to $2,643.90.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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