Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on April 21, 2022

US stocks ended in mixed territory on Wednesday as the tech-heavy Nasdaq was dragged down by bleak Netflix earnings, while bond yields dipped after a recent strong run. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 249.59 points, or 0.71 percent, to 35,160.79, the S&P 500 lost 2.76 points, or 0.06 percent, to 4,459.45 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 166.59 points, or 1.22 percent, to 13,453.07.

Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Thursday morning trade as investors continue to watch China’s COVID situation along with moves in the Japanese yen. Chinese stocks fell in early trade, with the Shanghai composite shedding 0.3 percent while the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.3 percent. The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 1.14 percent while the Topix index advanced 0.63 percent.

Domestic equities snapped the five-day losing streak on April 20 owing to gains in select heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, Infosys, TCS and Hindustan Unilever. Sensex opened in the green and stayed higher throughout the session eventually closing 574 points, or 1.02 percent, higher at 57,037.50. Nifty settled 178 points, or 1.05 percent, higher at 17,136.55.

Oil prices traded higher but in a narrow range on Thursday, after being rocked earlier in the week by supply losses from Libya and a worrying outlook for demand as the International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts. Brent crude futures rose 55 cents, or 0.5%, to $107.35 a barrel at 0117 GMT, recouping losses from the previous session. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 41 cents, or 0.4%, to 102.60 a barrel, adding to a 19 cent gain in the previous session.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 59 points or 0.35 percent higher at 17,232, indicating a positive opening for the Indian markets.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth ₹3,009.3 crore on Wednesday, a ninth straight day of outflow, though domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made net purchases of ₹2,645.8 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

The rupee ended 30 paise higher at 76.21 per dollar in the previous session on April 20. Analysts expect the rupee's trading range to be between 76 to 76.60 levels.

Gold extended its losses on April 20 despite downbeat US existing home sales data and fall in the dollar index. Gold June futures contract settled at $1955.60 per troy ounce with a loss of 0.17 percent. The dollar index slipped from two year high after rebound in the US equities.

HCL Technologies, Nestle India, ICICI Lombard, L&T Tech, Tata Communications, CRISIL, Cyient, Rallis India, and Trident Texofab are some firms that will release their quarterly earnings on April 21.