Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on February 28, 2023

US stocks eked out a slight gain on Monday as investors engaged in some bargain hunting after last week's losses, the biggest percentage declines of 2023 for Wall Street's main benchmarks, as jitters persisted about coming interest rate hikes to tame stubbornly high inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.17 points, or 0.22 percent, to 32,889.09, the S&P 500 gained 12.2 points, or 0.31 percent, to 3,982.24 and the Nasdaq Composite added 72.04 points, or 0.63 percent, to 11,466.98.

Asia-Pacific markets were higher on Tuesday as investors digested key economic data across the region. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.51 percent, while the Topix was higher at 0.37 percent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.57 percent ahead of its January retail sales data release. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.98 percent.

Concerns over inflation, rate hikes, a sustained capital outflow of foreign funds, geopolitical tensions and slowing global economic growth continued weighing on market sentiment as the domestic market benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty ended in the red for the seventh consecutive session on February 27. Sensex ended with a loss of 176 points, or 0.30 percent, at 59,288.35 while the Nifty50 closed at 17,392.70, down 73 points or 0.42 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 2 points or 0.10 percent higher at 17,490, indicating a tepid opening for the Indian markets. 

Oil prices slid about 1 percent on Monday as strong US economic data had investors bracing for more interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve to fight inflation, which could slow economic growth and oil demand. Losses were limited by oil supply concerns after Russia halted exports to Poland via a key pipeline. Brent futures fell 71 cents, or 0.9 percent, to settle at $82.45 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 64 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $75.68.

Banks' credit growth eased to 16.8 percent in the December quarter from 17.2 percent in the preceding quarter, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of SCBs: December 2022 showed. In the year-ago period, bank credit grew at 8.4 percent. The growth in credit was led by bank branches in metropolitan centres, which account for nearly 60 percent of the total credit by scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and recorded a  17.2 percent rise on-year in lending; urban, semi-urban and rural centres also recorded double-digit credit growth, the RBI said.

The rupee fell almost 10 paise to close at 82.85 per dollar in the previous session amid weakness in the domestic equity market and the dollar's rise. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures US currency against six other peers, was set to snap a four-month losing streak.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth ₹2,022.52 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth ₹2,231.66 crore on February 27, the National Stock Exchange's provisional data showed.

Gold prices dipped on Tuesday and were poised for a monthly decline of about 6% as the prospects of further interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve continued to weigh on the zero-yielding asset's appeal. Bullion is often seen as a hedge against inflation, but the opportunity cost of holding it rises when interest rates are increased to bring down inflation, reported Reuters.