Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on February 3, 2023

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 ended higher on Thursday and touched roughly five-month highs as a more dovish-than-expected message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell boosted equities and Meta Platforms shares soared on rigorous cost controls. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 39.02 points, or 0.11%, to 34,053.94, the S&P 500 gained 60.55 points, or 1.47%, to 4,179.76 and the Nasdaq Composite added 384.50 points, or 3.25%, to 12,200.82.

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific were mixed on Friday after Wall Street’s rally driven by technology stocks. Meta surged 23%, marking its best day since 2013 after seeing a better-than-expected earnings report. The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.64% and the Topix fell 0.41%. In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.14%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.38% as investors digest new housing loan commitments for December that fell 4.3%.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 69 points or 0.4 percent higher at 17,708, indicating a strong opening for the Indian markets. 

Equity barometer Sensex ended with decent gains on February 2, extending its winning run into the fourth consecutive session while the Nifty50 ended lacklustre dragged by the poor show of Adani stocks. The 30-share pack Sensex ended 224 points, or 0.38 percent, higher at 59,932.24 while the Nifty50 closed at 17,610.40, down 6 points, or 0.03 percent. It was the second consecutive day of losses for Nifty50.

Amid massive stock rout for almost a week in most of Adani group stocks, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has put Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Ambuja Cements under additional surveillance measure (ASM) framework effective February 3, 2023 to curb short-selling. NSE, in its circular released on February 2, noted that applicable rate of margin shall be 50 percent or existing margin, whichever is higher, subject to maximum rate of margin capped at 100 percent w.e.f. February 6, 2023 on all open positions as on February 3 and new positions created from February 6.

Oil prices made modest gains in early trade on Friday but were heading for a second straight week of losses, as the market looked for more signs of a strong recovery in fuel demand in China to offset looming slumps in other major economies. Brent crude futures rose 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $82.33 a barrel at 0110 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 18 cents, or 0.2%, to $76.06 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net-sold shares worth ₹3,065.35 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased shares worth ₹2,371.36 crore on February 2, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

The rupee fell 25 paise to close at 82.18 per dollar in the previous session due to strong selling by FPIs. As per NSE data, FPIs sold Indian equities worth ₹3,065.35 crore on NSE, BSE and MSEI on February 2.

Gold prices ticked up on Friday as markets digested recent comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but the precious metal was headed for its biggest weekly fall since November after a 2 percent drop in the previous session, reported Reuters.