World Markets
15 March 2021
Headlines
- Dollar firm amid U.S. yield spike; bitcoin back below $60,000 following surge to record high
- Asia-Pacific markets trade mixed ahead of Fed meeting
- Brent crude floats near $70 on demand recovery anticipation
- CPI inflation surges to 5.03% in February; IIP recedes by 1.6% in January
Equity
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Monday ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting stateside. The Indian stock market is expected to open in the green as trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the index in India with a 90 points gain. According to pivot charts, the key support levels for the Nifty are placed at 14,877.63 followed by 14,724.27. If the index moves up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 15,260.33 and 15,489.67.
Australian shares pared some losses as the benchmark ASX 200 traded near flat. The energy sector gained 0.75% while the materials sector was down 1.19%. The heavily-weighted financials subindex retraced losses to trade up 0.29%. Japanese markets rose, where the Nikkei 225 notched up a 0.3% gain while the Topix index added 0.45%.In South Korea, the Kospi wavered between gains and losses — the benchmark index slipped 0.08%.
Currencies and oil
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded near flat at 91.630 against a basket of its peers, slipping from levels above 92.00 last week.
The Japanese yen weakened to the 109 level, trading at 109.04 against the greenback compared to an earlier high around 108.97. Meanwhile, the Australian dollars changed hands at $0.7767, rising from a previous level around $0.7737.
In recent trade today, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the yuan mid-point at 6.5010 previous fix 6.4845; previous close 6.5088.
Oil prices rose Monday during Asian trading hours on the back of growing optimism around demand recovery. U.S. crude was up 0.37% at $65.85 per barrel.
Indian Economic Data
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) or retail inflation rate for the month of February 2021 surged to 5.03 percent. While the retail inflation continues to march in the positive trajectory, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) contracted by 1.6 percent in the month of January. This is a warning sign that the speed economic recovery is slowing down.
Disclaimer : All information in this report is collected from various sites on internet. Although we have taken all precautions for correct representation of data however we do not take any responsibility for any errors and omissions. The technical analysis and views expressed is authors own views. We are not responsible for any losses on account of following the same.
