Morning comments Indian markets could open flat, in line with | Make Money with Amit Bhawani 👨‍🏫💲

Morning comments

Indian markets could open flat, in line with rangebound Asian markets today and despite lower US markets on Friday.…

U.S. stocks finished lower Friday, weighed down by worries over the debt-ceiling deadline and concerns that more mergers involving regional banks may be needed. All three major indexes booked weekly gains, with the Dow rising 0.4% to snap two straight weeks of losses. The S&P 500 saw a 1.6% gain for the week, also snapping back-to-back weekly losses; the Nasdaq rose 3% in a fourth straight week of gains for its longest winning streak since the week ending Feb. 3, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.38%, the S&P 500 climbed 1.65% and the Nasdaq advanced 3.04%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched their biggest weekly percentage gains since the final week of March.

Meanwhile, debt-ceiling negotiations are at a “pause,” said Republican Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, a key ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Graves suggested that the White House’s representatives in the talks were being “unreasonable.”

A CNN report, citing two people familiar with the matter, raised the prospect that more regional banks may have to be bought by larger too-big-to-fail firms.

US Fed Chair Powell said that uncertainties surrounding the lagging impact of past rate hikes and recent bank credit tightening made it unclear whether more monetary tightening will be necessary.

The Reserve Bank of India said that its board on Friday approved to transfer a surplus of Rs 87,416 crore to the government for the financial year ended March 31. This is the highest surplus transfer since Rs 99,122 crore in FY21. In financial year ended March 2022, the central bank had transferred Rs 30,307 crore. The latest surplus transfer is higher than the Rs 48,000 crore that the government had budgeted as dividend income from the RBI and public sector banks. Economists had estimated a surplus transfer of Rs 80,000-100,000 crore from the regulator.


Futures are again pricing in an about a 90% chance that the US Fed would keep rates unchanged at its next meeting in June, and a total of almost 50 basis points of cuts by the end of the year.

China kept its benchmark lending rates unchanged for the ninth straight month on Monday, matching market expectations for May. China's one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was kept at 3.65% and its five-year LPR was unchanged at 4.30%.

Asian shares and US stock futures traded in narrow ranges in early trading as uncertainty over US talks to avoid a debt default cast a shadow over markets.

Nifty snapped a 3 session losing streak on May 19 aided by positive global cues. At close, Nifty was up 0.41% or 73.5 points at 18203.4. Nifty formed a bullish near hammer pattern on daily charts after a fall. On weekly charts it fell 0.61%. Nifty needs to cross 18459 on the upside for the upward momentum to continue. 18055 on the downside needs to be protected if the intermediate bullish trend is to be maintained. The last of the Q4 results are expected in the current week. This could impact the individual stock prices, but the overall mood will be decided by the FPI flows and developments on the US debt default situation.