>> Indian punters join the GameStop party
>> Ray Dalio calls Bitcoin ‘one hell of an invention’
>> Airtel again ahead in user addition
AND
>> Sundaram buys out Principal Mutual Fund
And there is more. But first, a quick glance at the state of the markets..
>> Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 112.75 points or +0.8 per cent higher at 8:45 am, in signs that Dalal Street was headed for a gap-up start.
ELSEWHERE
>> Asian stocks followed US peers higher on Friday after steps to curb volatile retail-trader speculation and solid corporate earnings eased nerves on Wall Street. Japan’s Topix index advanced 0.3%, Hang Seng rose 1%, Shanghai Composite 0.5% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index 0.7%.
>> On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.99%, the S&P 500 gained 0.98% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5% as fears of social-media driven hedge fund selling abated and the US earnings season got off to a strong start
IN CURRENCIES
>> The rupee depreciated by 13 paise to settle at 73.05 against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking muted domestic equities and a strengthening American currency.
>> The dollar dipped as risk sentiment improved. The Aussie dollar was about flat at 76.75 US cents after rising 0.2% overnight. The euro was little changed at $1.21175 after edging higher in the previous session. The offshore yuan was at 6.4749 per dollar.
>> Bitcoin continued to edge higher, trading at $33,899, after surging more than 10% on Thursday.
IN OIL MARKET
>> Crude prices ticked up. WTI crude rose 0.1% to $52.39 a barrel.
AND IN BULLION
>> Gold on Thursday fell by Rs 109 to Rs 48,183 per 10 gm in Delhi following muted global trends. Silver dipped by Rs 146 to Rs 65,031 a kg. In international markets, the yellow metal slipped 0.1 per cent to $1,841.17 an ounce
All in all, the trade setup on Dalal Street looked strong. On Thursday, Nifty formed a ‘Doji’ candle on the daily chart, as buying emerged at lows. Analysts said a Doji after a sharp drop gives hope of a trend reversal.
LET ME NOW GIVE YOU A HEADS-UP on some of the top news we are tracking at this hour.
… It’s small investors versus big Wall Street hedge funds – and Indian punters have now joined the party. Market estimates peg the Indian retail bet on the stock of GameStop — previously a little-known US video game retail chain — at Rs 60-65 crore since Monday. All Indian retail plays are like those that started when groups of American small investors began punting against hedge funds’ bet that GameStop stock will fall.
… Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said Bitcoin is “one hell of an invention” and he’s considering cryptocurrencies as investments for new funds offering clients protection against the debasement of fiat money. “To have invented a new type of money via a system that is programmed into a computer and that has worked for around 10 years and is rapidly gaining popularity as both a type of money and a storehold of wealth is an amazing accomplishment,” Dalio wrote in a note to clients and later posted on Bridgewater’s website.
… Input cost inflation isn’t just a catchphrase invented by talking heads on prime-time television. It is beginning to pinch — so much so that the country’s biggest carmaker is undershooting Street estimates of profitability. At 27.5%, Maruti Suzuki reported its lowest gross margin in nearly seven years in the December quarter. Gross margins tell the effect of raw material costs on profitability, and in the past 12 quarters, it averaged at 29.6% for India’s largest carmaker.
… ICICI Bank, one of India’s top corporate bond arrangers, expects spreads on the highest-rated local notes to widen further as the central bank begins to withdraw emergency liquidity. The extra yield investors demand to hold AAA rated company notes due in one year over comparable government securities jumped to the highest since October last week and remains near that level. That came after RBI on Jan. 8 announced plans to drain excess cash from markets.
… Fears of social-media driven hedge fund selling abated somewhat on Wall Street on Thursday after brokers cut off leverage and restricted trading in some of the hottest names such as GameStop and BlackBerry. The boss of popular online broker Robinhood said the curbs were deployed to protect the brokerage and its customers and that some restrictions will lift on Friday. Facebook took down a popular Wall Street discussion group, Robinhood Stock Traders.
… Bharti Airtel added more mobile phone users than market leader Reliance Jio Infocomm for the fourth straight month in November 2020, signalling that it’s still gaining bulk of the customers leaving Vodafone Idea (Vi), which continued to cede ground to its stronger rivals. Airtel gained 4.37 million wireless subscribers against Jio’s 1.93 million, while struggling Vi lost 2.89 million users in November, according to subscriber data collated by Trai released Thursday
LASTLY, AN UPDATE ON ALL THE STOCKS BUZZING THIS MORNING
>> Amazon on Thursday urged the Delhi High Court to enforce an Emergency Arbitrator award under the Singapore International Arbitration Centre restraining Future Group from going ahead with the deal to sell its retail assets to Reliance Retail.
>> RBL Bank’s net profit more than doubled to Rs 147 crore in the quarter ended December 2020 from Rs 70 crore a year ago, but the reversal of interest and elevated provisions for its stressed retail and MSME book muted the numbers
>> IDBI Bank reported its fourth consecutive quarter of net profit, as a fall in the cost of funds helped the Life Insurance Corp of India-controlled lender boost its net interest income.
>> Sundaram Finance told BSE Sundaram MF has acquired Principal Mutual Fund for a consideration of Rs 338.53 crore, after the later decided to exit the asset management business in India as a part of the review of portfolio of businesses and global market dynamics.
That’s it for now. For all the market news through the day, do track ETMarkets.com. Have a great day ahead! Bye-bye
