Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on January 23, 2023

US stocks rallied to close higher on Friday, as the S&P 500 and Dow snapped a three-session losing streak and the Nasdaq rose more than 2%, as quarterly earnings helped lift Netflix, while Google parent Alphabet climbed after announcing job cuts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 330.93 points, or 1%, to 33,375.49, the S&P 500 gained 73.76 points, or 1.89%, to 3,972.61 and the Nasdaq Composite added 288.17 points, or 2.66%, to 11,140.43.

Australian shares inched higher on Monday to their highest in nearly nine months, as technology stocks tracked Wall Street’s strong finish last week and firm crude oil prices lifted energy stocks. The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.1% to 7,458.00 by 23:28 GMT, extending gains to a fourth session. Trading volumes were low, with some major Asian markets including key trading partner China closed for holidays. S&P E-minis futures were up 0.1%.

Domestic equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty ended in the red for the second consecutive session on January 20 as the risk appetite of investors remained weak amid concerns over softer quarterly earnings, rate hikes and global economic slowdown. Sensex opened 43 points higher at 60,901.16 and rose 143 points to an intraday high of 61,001.18. The index, however, failed to hold gains and fell 273 points to an intraday low of 60,585.25. The index finally closed 237 points, or 0.39 percent, lower at 60,621.77 while the Nifty closed at 18,027.65, down 80 points, or 0.44 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 104 points or 0.58 percent higher at 18,148, indicating a gap up opening for the Indian markets. 

Oil prices drifted lower in early trade on Monday, thinned by the Lunar New Year holiday in east Asia, but held on to most of last week's gains on the prospect of an economic recovery in top oil importer China this year. Brent crude futures retreated by 46 cents, or 0.5%, to $87.17 at 0031 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 40 cents, also down 0.5%, to $81.24 a barrel.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on January 20 said its revenue from operations for the quarter ended December 2022 (Q3FY23) came in at ₹220,592 crore, up 15.32 percent against ₹191,271 crore reported a year ago. Its consolidated net profit for the quarter stood at ₹17,806 crore, down 13.30 percent year-on-year (YoY). The company had reported a net profit of ₹20,539 crore in the same quarter last year. Company officials said higher finance costs were due to interest rate hikes by central banks and higher loan balances.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold shares worth ₹2,002.25 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) net bought shares worth ₹1,509.95 crore on January 20, as per the provisional data available on the NSE.

Gold prices rose slightly on Monday, trading close to a nine-month high as markets awaited more U.S. data this week to gauge whether the world’s largest economy was facing a potential recession in 2023. Focus this week is squarely on U.S. Q4 GDP data, due on Thursday. Growth is expected to have slowed in the fourth quarter from the third, as the effects of tighter monetary policy begin to be felt by the economy. Spot Gold rose 0.2% to $1,928.95 an ounce, while gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,930.50 an ounce by 19:32 ET (00:32 GMT). Both instruments were trading close to their highest level since late-April, and were less than $100 away from record highs.

The rupee appreciated by 19 paise to close at 81.17 against the US dollar on Friday on broad dollar weakness. However, weak domestic equities and a surge in crude oil prices capped the gains for the local currency, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened strong at 81.24, and settled for the day at 81.17, registering a rise of 19 paise over its previous close.