Indian stock market: 9 key things that changed for market over weekend - Gift Nifty, Quant Mutual Fund probe to US PMI

Indian stock market: The domestic equity market indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, are expected to open lower Monday following negative global market cues.

Asian markets traded lower, while the US stock market also ended mostly in the red last week dragged down by technology stocks.

On Friday, the Indian stock market benchmark indices ended lower amid profit booking and weak global sentiment.

The Sensex declined 269.03 points, or 0.35%, to close at 77,209.90, while the Nifty 50 settled 65.90 points, or 0.28%, lower at 23,501.10.

“The market is expected to trade sideways next week due to the absence of strong buying or selling triggers. While the underlying sentiment remains bullish, dips might attract opportunistic buying, which could support the market. However, strong rallies may be capped by profit booking,” said Pravesh Gour, Senior Technical Analyst at Swastika Investmart Ltd.

Investors will watch out for any Union Budget-related or government policy announcements, domestic and global macroeconomic indicators, trends in foreign fund flows, crude oil prices, and other key global cues that will drive the market going forward.

Read here: Week Ahead: Macro data, F&O expiry, global cues among key market triggers as Nifty eyes 24,000 this week

Here are key domestic and global market cues for Sensex today:

Asian Markets

Asian markets traded lower ahead of inflation data in the region later this week.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.19%, while the Topix gained 0.24%. Japanese yen slipped 0.1% to 159.91.

South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.39%, and the Kosdaq dropped 0.54%. Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures indicated a negative opening. 

Gift Nifty Today

Gift Nifty was trading around 23,395 level, a discount of nearly 80 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close, indicating a negative start for the Indian stock market indices.

Also Read: Buy or sell: Vaishali Parekh recommends three stocks to buy today — June 24

Wall Street

US stock market ended mostly lower on Friday weighed down by selling in technology stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 15.57 points, or 0.04%, to 39,150.33, while the S&P 500 fell 8.55 points, or 0.16%, to 5,464.62. The Nasdaq Composite ended 32.23 points, or 0.18%, lower at 17,689.36.

Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon shares gained between 0.92% to 1.89%. Apple shares slipped 1.04% and Nvidia shares plunged 3.22%. Qualcomm, Broadcom and Micron Technology share price declined between 1.36% and 4.38%.

Spirit AeroSystems stock price jumped 6.00%, while Sarepta Therapeutics shares soared 30.14%.

Also Read: Wall Street week ahead: Investors eye Fed’s preferred PCE inflation, personal income data

Sebi probes Quant MF for front-running: Report

Capital market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) conducted search and seizure operations at two locations of Quant Mutual Fund suspecting front-running, a report said. Sebi has also questioned Quant Mutual Fund dealers and persons connected with the case, Moneycontrol reported, quoting sources who also revealed that the alleged profits from the front-running operations were around ₹20 crore.

The Sandeep Tandon-owned Quant Mutual Fund issued a clarification to its investors, confirming that it received inquiries from the regulator. Quant said it was “fully committed to cooperate with the regulator”.

Read here: ’Our primary goal…' says Quant Mutual Fund on front-running allegations

GST Council Meeting

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council at its 53rd meeting on Saturday proposed a slew of recommendations, including tax exemption on services provided by the Indian Railways and biometric-based Aadhaar authentication to check fake invoicing.

Read here: GST Council meeting: Tax rates changed for goods & services; Here’s what gets cheaper & costlier

US PMI

US business activity crept up to a 26-month high in June. S&P Global said its flash US Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, nudged up to 54.6 this month. That was the highest level since April 2022 and followed a final reading of 54.5 in May. 

US Existing Homes Sales

US existing home sales fell for a third straight month in May. Home sales dropped 0.7% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.11 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home resales sliding to a rate of 4.10 million units. Home resales decreased 2.8% year-on-year in May.

RBI MPC Minutes

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) minutes of the June Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting highlighted that the policy must continue to be actively disinflationary to ensure anchoring of inflation to its target level and fuller transmission.

Read here: RBI MPC Minutes: Food inflation ‘persistently high’, price stability bedrock for high growth; 5 key highlights

Oil Prices

Crude oil prices traded lower on Monday for a second straight session, weighed down by a stronger dollar.

Brent crude futures fell 0.40% to $84.90 a barrel, after settling down 0.6% on Friday, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 0.40% to $80.41 a barrel.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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