Asian shares face headwinds Monday after the rally in U.S. bonds and stocks hit a wall Friday amid concern that the Federal Reserve can’t claim victory over inflation yet.
Equity futures for Australia were little changed while those for Hong Kong dropped 0.7% and an index of U.S.-listed Chinese stocks fell more than 2%. Japanese markets will be closed for a holiday.
Contracts for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were marginally lower as trading got underway in Asia on Monday. The underlying indices posted mild losses on Friday as traders cited consolidation after an advance that drove the S&P 500 to its best week since mid-June.
Meanwhile, Brent crude was below $80 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was around the $75-mark. The yield on the 10-year U.S. bond was trading at 3.83%, whereas Bitcoin was below 31,000-level.
At 5:24 a.m., the GIFT Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India was down 0.15% or 30 points at 19,618.
India’s benchmark stock indices were steady through Friday before jumping to fresh record highs in the last leg of trade. Ahead of ending at record closing highs, the Sensex rose 0.92% to scale a new high at 66,159.79 points and the Nifty 50 jumped 0.94% to hit a record high at 19,595.35 points. The S&P BSE Sensex closed 502 points up, or 0.77%, at 66,060.90, while the NSE Nifty 50 ended 151 points, or 0.78%, higher at 19,564.50. The local currency weakened 10 paise to close at Rs 82.17 against the U.S dollar on Friday.
Overseas investors in Indian equities remained net buyers on Friday, in a week where they added stocks in all but one session. Foreign portfolio investors mopped up stocks worth Rs 2,636.4 crore, while domestic institutional investors remained net sellers of equities and offloaded stocks worth Rs 772.45 crore.
Source:- BQ Prime
