Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on May 5, 2023

Wall Street ended lower on Thursday after PacWest's move to explore strategic options deepened fears about the health of U.S. lenders and hit shares of regional banks as well. The S&P 500 declined 0.72% to end the session at 4,061.22 points. It was its fourth straight session of declines, the first such streak since February. The Nasdaq declined 0.49% to 11,966.40 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.86% to 33,127.74 points.

Asia-Pacific markets fell as banking fears were reignited on Wall Street, sending the three major US indices into a four-day losing streak. Regional bank shares sold off, with the SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF dropping more than 5 percent and some banks seeing volatile trading. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.23 percent in early trade. The Reserve Bank of Australia will release its statement on monetary policy, which will detail the central bank’s deliberations when it unexpectedly raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.85 percent. Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 19,904, pointing to a lower open compared to its last close of 19,948.73.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 32 points or 0.18 percent lower at 18,252, indicating a weak opening for the Indian markets. 

Equity benchmark indices ended nearly 1 percent higher on Thursday amid continuous foreign fund inflows and buying in index majors HDFC twins and Reliance Industries. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 555.95 points or 0.91 percent to settle at 61,749.25. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 165.95 points or 0.92 percent to end at 18,255.80.

Oil prices settled nearly unchanged on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to slow the pace of interest rate hikes, with prices still down more than 9 percent for the week on demand concerns in major consuming countries. Brent futures settled up 17 cents, or 0.24 percent, to $72.50 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled down 4 cents, or 0.06 to $68.56. WTI in early trading on Thursday fell to a session low of $63.64 a barrel, the lowest price since December 2021.

Gold made another run toward record highs on Thursday as U.S. banking concerns accelerated a flight to the safe-haven asset and sustained its stellar rally driven by bets for a pause in U.S. rate hikes. Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $2,045.79 per ounce after climbing earlier to $2,072.19, shy of a record high of $2,072.49. U.S. gold futures settled 0.9 percent higher at $2,055.70.

Britannia Industries, Adani Power, Marico, One97 Communications, Bharat Forge, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Federal Bank, and Piramal Enterprises are a few firms that are likely to announce their March quarter results today.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth ₹1,414.73 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased shares worth ₹441.56 crore on May 4, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed.

The rupee ended higher against the dollar on Thursday, but off the day’s highs. The Indian unit settled at 81.8000 a dollar, little changed from 81.8175 Wednesday. Intraday, it hit a high of 81.6500.