Market Bizzz

Asian shares tracked Wall Street higher on Friday, although gains could quickly unwind as investors grapple with the reality that surging U.S. inflation will likely lead to higher interest rates for longer, hastening a global recession. MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was trading 2.45 per cent higher.

Yet trading volume has also slumped. Daily readings are hovering around $47 billion right now, down from more than $100 billion at the start of the year, according to data tracker CoinMarketCap.com.

The board meeting of Sukhjit Starch and Chemicals is also scheduled for Friday to consider and approve the sale/transfer of land, buildings and other fixed assets at Phagwara. Moreover, the RR Metalmakers will consider a preferential issue of shares.

Also, the board of Apollo Micro Systems will meet to consider the issue of equity shares and/or convertible securities including warrants on preferential basis. Infosys will be meeting for a share buyback plan.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting last month showed that officials agreed they needed to raise interest rates to a more restrictive level – and then maintain them there for some time – to meet their goal of lowering “broad-based and unacceptably high” inflation, even as the minutes contained a hint of a downshift in the pace of future monetary tightening.

Fed policymakers agreed they needed to move to a more restrictive policy stance, and then maintain that for some time, in order to meet the U.S. central bank’s goal of lowering inflation, a readout of last month’s two-day meeting showed on Wednesday.

The International Monetary Fund cut its 2023 global growth forecast from 2.9% to 2.7%, warning that pressures from inflation, war-driven energy and food crises, and higher interest rates may tip the world into recession and financial market instability.

While gold is considered as a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainties, rising interest rates reduce the appeal of the asset, which pays no interest. The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that colliding pressures from inflation, war-driven energy and food crises and sharply higher interest rates were pushing the world to the brink of recession.