Indian stock market: 10 key things that changed for market over weekend- Gift Nifty, Israel-Hamas ceasefire to China LPR

Asian markets gained, while the US stock market ended higher last week, ahead of the US President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

This week, investors will monitor key stock market triggers, including the next set of Q3 results, Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President, domestic and global macroeconomic data, flow of foreign funds, crude oil prices and other global market cues.

On Friday, the Indian stock market ended lower, breaking their 3-day winning streak, driven by a sell-off in banking and IT counters.

The Sensex declined 423.49 points, or 0.55%, to close at 76,619.33, while the Nifty 50 settled 108.60 points, or 0.47% lower, at 23,203.20.

“Domestic equities are expected to remain volatile with stock specific action as the corporate earnings season for the third quarter is in full swing. The December quarterly results together with management commentary will be closely tracked by investors. Donald Trump’s swearing in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, 20th January and the following policy announcements will have a strong impact on the global market sentiments,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Here are key global market cues for Sensex today:

Asian Markets

Asian markets traded higher on Monday, tracking Wall Street rally last week, and ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 0.76%, while the Topix rallied 0.74%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.43% and the Kosdaq gained 0.36%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures indicated a higher opening.

Gift Nifty Today

Gift Nifty was trading around 23,280 level, a premium of nearly 13 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close, indicating a positive start for the Indian stock market indices.

Wall Street

US stock market ended higher on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Industrials registering their biggest weekly percentage gains since early November and the Nasdaq recording its best since early December.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 334.70 points, or 0.78%, to 43,487.83, while the S&P 500 rallied 59.32 points, or 1.00%, to 5,996.66. The Nasdaq Composite closed 291.91 points, or 1.51%, higher at 19,630.20.

For the week, the Dow Jones surged 3.69%, the S&P rose 2.92% and the Nasdaq rallied 2.43%.

Nvidia share price gained 3.1%, Broadcom stock advanced 3.5%, Intel shares jumped 9.25% Qorvo stock spiked 14.43%. Meta shares rose 0.24% while Snap declined 3.21%.

Israel-Gaza Ceasefire

Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal this week — temporarily pausing the devastating 15-month Gaza war. The deal sets in motion a long and uncertain process aimed at ultimately ending the war and returning nearly 100 hostages (abducted during the October 2023 Hamas attack) to Israel.

China Interest Rate

China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged Monday. The People’s Bank of China held the 1-year loan prime rate at 3.1%, and the 5-year LPR at 3.6%.

Wipro Q3 Results

Wipro reported a 4.5% QoQ increase in consolidated net profit to ₹3,354 crore in Q3FY25, while revenue remained flat QoQ at ₹22,319 crore. Wipro’s IT services revenue fell 1.2% QoQ to $2.63 billion, while in constant currency terms, it grew 0.1% QoQ. EBIT margin improved to 17.5%.

Wipro projected IT services revenue for the Q4FY25 to be in the range of (-) 1% to 1% in constant currency terms. Wipro declared an interim dividend of ₹6 per share and revised its capital allocation policy to commit at least 70% of net income as payouts over a three-year period.

US Housing Starts

US single-family homebuilding increased to a 10-month high in December. Single-family housing starts rose 3.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.050 million units last month. Single-family starts fell 2.6% on a YoY basis. Starts for the volatile multi-family housing segment soared 58.9% to a pace of 418,000 units. Overall housing starts jumped 15.8% to a rate of 1.499 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts would rise to a rate of 1.32 million units. Starts dropped 4.4% from a year ago.

RBI Bulletin

India’s economic growth is poised to rebound as domestic demand regains strength, but “stickiness” in food inflation warrants careful monitoring, RBI said in its monthly bulletin. In India, there is a “conducive quickening” of high-frequency economic activity indicators in the second half of 2024-25, signalling implicit pick up in real gross domestic product growth for this period, the RBI said.

Japan Core Machinery Orders

Japan’s core machinery orders rose 3.4% in November from the previous month. The reading was stronger than a 0.4% decline estimated in a Reuters poll and marked a second consecutive month of increase. Orders from manufacturers rose 6.0%, while those from ‘core’ non-manufacturers excluding the ship and electricity sectors rose 1.2%.

Oil Prices

Crude oil prices rose Monday on supply concerns after the US imposed sanctions on Russia’s energy sector over the Ukraine war.

Brent crude futures rose 0.4%, to $81.13 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.8% to $78.47 a barrel.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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