Market Bizzz

Gold is considered a hedge against soaring inflation, but high interest rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. Data on Friday showed U.S. import prices dropped for a seventh straight month in January amid declining costs for energy products, leading to the smallest annual increase in imported inflation in two years.

Minutes of the Fed’s last meeting due on Wednesday should add colour on the deliberations, though they have been superseded somewhat by barnstorming numbers on January payrolls and retail sales.

In Asia, investors are eyeing the People’s Bank of China’s decision on its mortgage rates to support recovery in the property sector and its economy, CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng said. China is the world’s largest crude oil importer.

“The company is unable to service its obligations in respect of the interest on Non-Convertible Debentures was due on February 16, 2023,” it said.

On the daily chart, Nifty has closed just a notch below the crucial 100-DMA which is placed at 17,967. With 50-DMA placed at 18,033, Nifty has multiple resistances to navigate between 17,950-18,050 levels on both daily and weekly charts. In other words, some meaningful up move shall happen only after Nifty moves past 18,000–18,100 levels convincingly.

“One little contrarian or little ahead of the curve call would be metals. We have seen really atrocious numbers. As China recovers and we see the Chinese economic recovery gaining traction around June, all of a sudden you will see price action coming back. So I would take some positions in metals in anticipation of a Chinese recovery; the profit numbers were very poor, and margins fell down because of pricing going off, I think global pricing will come back to metals and that will help our metal producers as well.”

Adani Wilmar has been included in Nifty Next 50 and Nifty 100 indices, whereas Adani Power will now be part of Nifty 500, Nifty 200, Nifty Midcap 100, Nifty Midcap 150, Nifty LargeMidcap 250, and Nifty Midsmallcap 400 indices

​Primary dealers were forced to take Rs 8,254 crore out of the Rs 12,000 crore bonds auctioned at 7.34% yield after the RBI rejected bids for that amount

The FMCG on Friday signed a deal with Singapore-based Reactivate Brands International to divest the two brands in the “atta and salt” categories of the foods business for Rs 60.4 crore