10:00 am: Housing Minister Hardeep Singh Puri at national seminar on Emerging Material and Construction Technologies event in New Delhi.
10:30 am: Trade Minister Suresh Prabhu at Global Economic Summit in Mumbai.
11:00 am: Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha at inauguration of “Suppliers’ Samvad” - Journey towards Digitization, Transparency and Ease of Doing Business event in New Delhi.
11:30 am: Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha to release “Strategic Plan” to bring synergy among the PSUs of DoT in New Delhi.
12:00 pm: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at AEPC Foundation Day celebration in Gurugram.
5:00 pm: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal at closing ceremony of “Suppliers’ Samvad” - Journey towards Digitization, Transparency and Ease of Doing Business event in New Delhi.
LIVECHAT - MONETARY POLICY OUTLOOK David Page, Senior Economist, AXA IM will speak on the subject at 1530 IST. To join the conversation, click on the link: https://forms.thomsonreuters.com/communities/ INDIA TOP NEWS • EXCLUSIVE- PNB adopts strict SWIFT controls after mega fraud case Punjab National Bank has stepped up its controls on the use of global payments network SWIFT following an alleged $1.77 billion fraud, according to memos issued this month and seen by Reuters.
• Bank executive among six remanded in $1.8 bln Indian fraud probe A court on Wednesday remanded six people including a general manager at state-run Punjab National Bank in police custody for nearly two weeks, after the latest arrests in a probe into an alleged $1.8 billion fraud.
• Central bank panel warns on inflation as it monitors growth Minutes from the Reserve Bank of India's meeting this month showed monetary policy committee members expressing concerns about accelerating inflation, although that was also tempered by uncertainty about the strength of an economic recovery.
• Trump Jr. says missing out on India deals because of father's self-imposed curbs U.S. President Donald Trump's eldest son described India as an important market for The Trump Organization, but said the global company will lose out on new deals because of self-imposed restrictions put in place by his father since he took office.
• ONGC short-lists three oil service majors to lift output from two fields The Oil and Natural Gas Corp is set to hire international oil service giants for the first time to boost output from domestic oil fields in response to a government push to increase local supplies and cut expensive imports.
• Canadian pension fund Caisse aims to double Indian real estate investments The real estate arm of Canada's second-largest pension fund manager wants to "more than double" the $631 million it has already committed to investments in India in the short term, the unit's president said on Wednesday.
GLOBAL TOP NEWS • Ford U.S. chief departs abruptly after behavior probe Ford Motor Co F.N said on Wednesday that Raj Nair, its president for North America, was leaving the company immediately after an internal investigation found his behavior was "inconsistent with the company's code of conduct." • U.S. students protest gun laws, Trump considers arming teachers Students galvanized by the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school confronted lawmakers on Wednesday with demands to restrict sales of assault rifles, while President Donald Trump suggested arming teachers as a way to stop more U.S. rampages.
• Fed policymakers show rising confidence on inflation, economic outlook -minutes The Federal Reserve's rate-setting committee showed more confidence in the need to keep raising interest rates at its last policy meeting, with most believing that inflation would perk up.
LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • The SGX Nifty Futures were trading at 10,330.50, down 0.5 pct from its previous close.
• The Indian rupee will likely open lower against the dollar, as the greenback hit a one-week high after Fed minutes strengthened bets of further rate hikes this year backed by likely acceleration in economic output.
• Indian government bonds are likely to fall after members of the Monetary Policy Committee warned of inflation risks.
GLOBAL MARKETS • U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday in a rocky session after the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's January meeting pushed yields on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note to a four-year high.
• Most Asian share markets followed S&P 500 futures lower as speculation of faster hikes in U.S interest rates soured risk appetite globally.
• The dollar traded near a one-week high against a basket of major currencies, rising after minutes of the Federal Reserve's January meeting showed policymakers were more confident of the need to keep raising interest rates.
• Oil prices fell, pulled down as a firmer dollar outweighed a report of a decrease in U.S. crude inventories.
• Gold prices were flat, weighed down as minutes from the last U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed policymakers confident in the need to keep raising interest rates.
CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 64.79/64.82 February 21 -$187.35 mln -$151.64 mln 10-yr bond yield 7.8 pct Month-to-date -$954.51 mln $249.10 mln Year-to-date $1.08 bln $1.72 bln For additional data: India govt bond market volumes Stock market reports Non-deliverable forwards data Corporate debt stories [IN CORPD] Local market closing/intraday levels [IN SNAPSHOT] Monthly inflows [INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN] ($1 = 64.8000 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Swathi Nair in Bengaluru)
