12 things you need to know before opening bell on February 2
Wall Street: Wall Street closed higher Tuesday, getting February off to a decent start on the heels of a miserable January. S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent, Dow Jones rose 0.8 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.7 percent. Asian equities: Asian shares rose higher Wednesday tracking stocks on Wall Street. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan surged 0.3 percent. Shares in Japan advanced 1.5 percent. Markets in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea are closed today for Lunar New Year holiday. Elsewhere in Australia, stocks jumped 1.9 percent. D-Street: The Indian share market closed over 1 percent higher Tuesday after the announcements on Budget 2022. Sensex rose 850 points to 58,862 and the Nifty50 index settled at 17,576, up over 237 points. Crude oil: Oil prices closed flat Tuesday, as geopolitical tensions and tight global supplies supported the market even as some speculated the oil cartel OPEC+ might boost supplies in the coming meeting. On Wednesday, Brent crude was up 0.3 percent at $89.45 and the US oil was rising to $88.45. Gold: Gold futures on MCX Tuesday rose by Rs 300 to Rs 47,632 per 10 grams. Silver futures for delivery in March also surged by over Rs 340 to Rs 60,976 per kilogram. On Wednesday, both precious metals were mixed in the international spot market, with gold at $1,801 and silver at $22.65 per ounce. Rupee: Rupee slipped 17 paise to close at 74.82, paring initial gains, as caution set in among market participants after the govt raised the fiscal deficit target above than that of FY22 in the Budget. Meanwhile, the dollar index fell 0.19 percent to 96.35 Monday. Bitcoin: Bitcoin price surged over 1.15 percent in the past 24 hours to Rs 30.83 lakh Wednesday morning, per data from CoinDCX, despite govt announcing a 30 percent tax on crypto gains. Ether, the second largest coin, surged over 3.45 percent during the same duration. Globally, Bitcoin was up over half a percent to $38,000 whereas Ether had advanced over 2.5 percent, per data from CoinMarketCap.Budget Highlights | Borrowing plans: India plans to sell record amount of bonds—worth Rs 15 trillion—in FY23. As per budget documents, net borrowings for the coming fiscal are estimated at Rs 11.2 trillion. Continue readingBudget Highlights | Fiscal deficit: Govt has pegged the fiscal deficit for 2021-22 at 6.9 percent of GDP and at 6.4 percent for 2022-23. The deficit for FY22 is 10 basis points higher than the earlier projection of 6.8 percent. Continue readingBudget Highlights | GDP estimate: India’s GDP is pegged at 9.2 percent for FY22, highest amongst all the large economies, FM Sitharaman said Tuesday. Continue readingBudget Highlights | Capex: FM announced a sharp rise in capex by 35.4 percent to Rs 7.50 lakh crore for FY23. In FY22, capex was Rs 5.54 lakh crore. Continue readingBudget Highlights | Crypto gains tax: FM Sitharaman announced a 30 percent tax on crypto gains, along with a TDS of 1 percent on transfer of digital assets. She said the loss from transfer of digital assets cannot be set off against any other income. Continue reading
