Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on July 1, 2022

Wall Street ended lower on Thursday, crossing the finish line of a grim month and quarter, a dismal coda to the S&P 500's worst first half in more than half a century. All three major US stock indexes finished the month and the second quarter in negative territory, with the S&P 500 notching its steepest first-half percentage drop since 1970. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 253.88 points, or 0.82%, to 30,775.43, the S&P 500 lost 33.45 points, or 0.88%, to 3,785.38 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 149.16 points, or 1.33%, to 11,028.74.

Asia-Pacific markets rose on the first day of the new quarter as investors wait for the results of a private survey on Chinese factory activity. The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.37%, and the Topix rose 0.42%, before paring some gains. In South Korea, the Kospi advanced 0.67%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.59% higher. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan increased 0.24%.

Benchmark indices ended on a flat note on Thursday. The BSE benchmark Sensex slipped 8.03 points or 0.02 percent to settle at 53,018.94. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty fell 18.85 points or 0.12 percent to close at 15,780.25.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 24 points or 0.16 percent lower at 15,698 indicating a negative opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices edged up in early trade on Friday, after sinking in the previous session as OPEC+ said it would stick to its planned oil output hikes in August and investors worried about the strength of the global economy. Brent crude futures rose 83 cents, or 0.8%, to $109.86 a barrel by 0012 GMT. WTI crude futures for August delivery rose 70 cents, or 0.7%, to $106.46 a barrel.

Policy support, including regulatory dispensations, helped the India’s banking sector navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and led to an improvement in asset quality in FY22, the Reserve Bank of India said in its Financial Stability Report released on June 30. The gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio of scheduled commercial banks declined to a six-year low of 5.9 percent in March 2022 from 7.4 per cent in March 2021, the RBI said. Net non-performing assets (NNPA) ratio also fell by 70 basis points during FY22 and stood at 1.7 percent as on March-end.

Sliding for the fifth straight session, the rupee fell 3 paise to close at a fresh lifetime low of 79.06 against the US dollar on Thursday amid a strong greenback overseas and unrelenting foreign fund outflows.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold ₹1,138.05 crore worth of shares, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained net buyers to the tune of ₹1,378.20 crore worth of shares on June 30, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Spot gold fell by 0.07 percent at $1,805.70 per ounce, as of 7:30 am on Friday.