10:30 am: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at an event in New Delhi.
LIVECHAT - G7 FX CHARTING Wilson Leung, chief market strategist at Trendsetter, joins us to discuss technical charts for G7 currencies at 09:30 am IST.
To join the conversation, click on the link: https://forms.thomsonreuters.com/communities/ INDIA TOP NEWS • U.S. aluminium firm Novelis to buy Aleris for $2.6 billion Hindalco Industries said its U.S. unit Novelis Inc has agreed to buy aluminium processor Aleris Corp for $2.6 billion, giving it a foothold in supplying the aerospace industry and other value-added businesses globally.
• ITC Q1 profit rises 10 pct, beats estimates India's biggest cigarette maker ITC posted a better-than-expected 10 percent rise in first-quarter profit on Thursday, as the company paid a significantly lower excise duty, a tax on manufactured goods.
• Vedanta's smelter closure has hurt companies, put people out of jobs - exec India's decision to shut down Vedanta Resources' biggest copper smelter over environment concerns has hit 350 companies that buy its products and led to over 3,000 layoffs, a top company executive said.
• Bharti Airtel posts surprise Q1 profit on tax write-back Bharti Airtel posted a surprise first-quarter profit helped by a tax write-back, though a pricing war in the country’s telecoms sector continued to weigh on the mobile carrier's bottomline.
• EXCLUSIVE-HPCL cancels Iran oil shipment after insurer excludes coverage - sources Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) cancelled the purchase of an Iranian oil cargo earlier this month after its insurance company refused to provide coverage for the crude because of U.S. sanctions, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
• Dr.Reddy's profit soars on anti-opioid drug sales in U.S. Dr.Reddy's Laboratories posted an over seven-fold rise in first-quarter net profit on Thursday, handily beating market expectations, aided by the U.S. launch of a generic version of an opioid addiction drug.
• Indian truckers' strike hits Amazon deliveries, commodity trade A truckers' strike across India has affected deliveries for e-commerce firms such as Amazon and Snapdeal, hurt cotton trade in the world's biggest producer of the fibre and disrupted the movement of grains and vegetables.
• Tata Power Q1 profit jumps nearly five-fold, tops estimates Tata Power reported a near five-fold jump in quarterly profit on Thursday due to a one-off gain on sale of investments.
GLOBAL TOP NEWS • U.S. Senate quietly votes to cut tariffs on hundreds of Chinese goods As trade tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. Senate quietly passed legislation on Thursday that would lower trade barriers on hundreds of items made in China.
• Amazon beats estimates, Wall Street breathes sigh of relief Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after Amazon.com's quarterly results beat estimates, sending the online retailer's stock to a record high and alleviating fears of deepening troubles across the FANG group after Facebook's results sent its shares reeling.
• BP to buy U.S. shale assets from BHP for $10.5 billion BP has agreed to buy U.S. shale oil and gas assets from global miner BHP Billiton for $10.5 billion, giving the British oil major a much bigger footprint in oil-rich onshore basins.
LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • SGX Nifty nearest-month futures were trading at 11,245, up 0.2 percent from previous close.
• The Indian rupee is expected to open lower against the dollar after the Chinese yuan paced losses among regional currencies following fresh clashes between Washington and Beijing on trade.
• Indian government bonds are likely to open lower, tracking sharp rise in U.S. Treasury yields, while market awaits fresh supply of papers later today and monetary policy decision next week. The yield on the benchmark 7.17 percent bond maturing in 2028 is likely to trade in a 7.74 percent-7.80 percent band today.
GLOBAL MARKETS • A plunge in Facebook's shares pushed the Nasdaq down more than 1 percent on Thursday, the index's biggest one-day drop in a month, but industrial stocks rose after the United States and the European Union said they would negotiate on trade.
• Asian stocks struggled to gain traction, following a mixed end to Wall Street trade and as the worsening Sino-U.S. trade dispute kept investors in the region cautious, despite signs of rapprochement between the United States and Europe.
• The dollar was firm against its peers, having regained traction as the euro slid sharply after the European Central Bank kept to its planned timetable to move away from its accommodative monetary policy.
• U.S. benchmark Treasury yields traded at six-week highs on Thursday as investors waited for what many analysts expect to be a strong reading of gross domestic product data for the second quarter on Friday.
• Oil prices slipped in quiet trading after three days of gains, but took support from Saudi Arabia halting crude transport through a key shipping lane, falling U.S. inventories and easing trade tensions between Washington and Europe.
• Gold prices edged up but stayed close to one-year lows, with investors waiting for data later in the day on U.S. economic growth.
CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 68.62/68.65 July 26 $357.44 mln -$140.26 mln 10-yr bond yield 7.75 pct Month-to-date -$388.32 mln -$168.88 mln Year-to-date -$1.18 bln -$5.95 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 = 68.6550 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Yoganand KN in Bengaluru)
