The benchmark indices opened lower on December 6, first day of trading in the new week. At 09:17 AM, the Sensex is down 83.99 points or 0.15 percent at 57,612.47. The Nifty down 28.10 points or 0.16 percent at 17,168.60. About 1,310 shares have advanced, 785 shares declined, and 125 shares are unchanged.
On the Nifty, among the early winners were Tech Mahindra, SBI Life Insurance, HDFC, Britannia Industries and Hindalco Industries. Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys, ONGC and Eicher Motors were among early losers at the opening bell.
US markets close lower
US stock benchmarks ended lower Friday, relinquishing solid opening gains and notching another week of losses, as investors reassessed a weaker-than-expected November jobs report as unlikely to stay the hand of a Federal Reserve that seems intent on tamping down inflation.
For the week, all three major indexes booked losses, with the Dow falling 0.9 percent, the S&P 500 sliding 1.2 percent, and the Nasdaq dropping 2.6 percent,. That Dow notched a fourth straight week of losses, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each closed with weekly declines for the second week in a row. The Russell 2000 index saw a weekly decline of 3.9 percent.
A report from the Labor Department showed that a mere 210,000 new jobs were created in the US in November, well below estimates from economists polled by The Wall Street Journal for a gain of 573,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to a 21 month low of 4.2 percent, its lowest since February 2020, and wages increased.
The final November reading of IHS Markit’s US purchasing managers index geared to the service sector was 58 versus an initial reading of 57. The more closely watched services reading from the Institute for Supply Management rose to 69.1 in November from 66.7, above forecasts.
IMF likely to lower growth estimates
The International Monetary Fund is likely to lower its global economic growth estimates due to the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the global lender's chief said
Evergrande Group shares tumble
Shares of China Evergrande Group tumbled 12 percent to an 11-year low on Monday after the firm said there was no guarantee it would have enough funds to meet debt repayments, prompting Chinese authorities to summon its chairman. The shares fell as a 30-day grace period on a coupon payment of $82.5 million due on November 6 comes to an end on Monday.
Asian stocks fall
Asian stocks fell as investors weighed uncertainties about the omicron variant and looked to U.S. inflation data amid the Federal Reserve’s hawkish tilt.
Omicron remained a concern as the variant spread to about one-third of US states, though there were reports from South Africa that cases there only had mild symptoms, Reuters said. Early trade was cautious as MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched down 0.4 percent.
Japan's Nikkei eased 0.6 percent, even as the government considered raising its economic growth forecast to account for a record $490 billion stimulus package. Chinese blue chips managed a 0.7 percent gain after state media quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying Beijing will cut banks' reserve requirement ratios (RRR) "in a timely way".
Forex reserves
Foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.713 billion to $637.687 billion in the week to November 26, RBI data showed. In the previous week ended November 19, the reserves had increased by $289 million to $640.401 billion. It touched a lifetime high of $642.453 billion in the week ended September 3, 2021.
In the reporting week ended November 26, the dip in the foreign exchange reserves was on account of a decline in foreign currency assets (FCA), a major component of the overall reserves and gold reserves, Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) weekly data released on Friday showed.
Gold reserves were down by $1.566 billion to $38.825 billion in the reporting week, the data showed.
RBI MPC may keep interest rates on hold, say experts
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India is meeting on December 6-8, 2021 to decide on policy action. The monetary policy review along with the release of key macro economic data points will steer the key equity indices this week.
It is widely expected that RBI's MPC will maintain a status-quo in the key lending rates, according to news reports. At present, the MPC of the central bank has maintained the repo rate, or short-term lending rate, for commercial banks at 4 percent.
