Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on May 31, 2022

Markets on Wall Street were closed on Monday for a holiday. Stocks rose on Wall Street Friday and closed higher for the week, breaking a seven-week losing streak, the longest such stretch since 2001. The S&P 500 rose 2.5 percent, the Nasdaq composite was up 3.3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.8 percent.

Shares in Asia-Pacific were lower in Tuesday morning trade as investors watched for market reaction to the release of official Chinese factory activity data for May. Mainland Chinese stocks nudged lower as the Shanghai Composite sat below the flatline while the Shenzhen Component dipped 0.135 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded 0.15 percent lower. The Nikkei 225 in Japan dipped 0.27 percent, while the Topix index declined 0.29 percent. Over in South Korea, the Kospi shed 0.08 percent.

Sensex and Nifty surged by nearly 2 percent on Monday, extending their winning run to a third straight day. BSE Sensex rallied 1,041.08 points or 1.90 percent to settle at a four-week high of 55,925.74 and the broader NSE Nifty jumped 308.95 points or 1.89 percent to settle at nearly four-week high of 16,661.40.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 60 points or 0.36 percent lower at 16,591, indicating a weak opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices rose on Tuesday after the European Union agreed to slash oil imports from Russia by the end of 2022, fuelling worries of a tighter market already strained for supply amid rising demand ahead of peak US and European summer driving season. Brent crude futures for July, which expires on Tuesday, gained 33 cents to $122 a barrel at 0054 GMT. The more active August contract rose 33 cents to $117.93. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $117.31 a barrel, up $2.24 from Friday's close. There was no settlement on Monday due to a US public holiday.

State-run insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on May 30 reported a net profit of ₹2,409 crore for the quarter ending March 2022, which was 17.41 percent lower as compared to ₹2,917.33 crore reported in the year-ago period. The company's net profit for the entire fiscal was reported as ₹4,043.12 crore, which was 39.4 percent higher as compared to ₹2,900.56 crore in FY21. The total revenue in Q4 FY22 came in at ₹2,11,471 crore, which was 11.64 percent higher as compared to ₹1,89,176 crore-revenue reported in the corresponding quarter last year.

The rupee gained about 3 paise to end at 77.54 on May 30 supported by gains in domestic equities. However, gains in the dollar capped the gains of the rupee.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers for the first time since April 28 this year, buying shares worth ₹502.08 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained net buyers, to the tune of ₹1,524.49 crore worth of shares on May 30, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Gold prices dropped on May 31 as a higher dollar and rising US Treasury yields weighed on demand for the yellow metal, which is set for a second straight monthly loss for the first time since March 2021, reported news agency Reuters.