Tag: commodity prices

The Indian key benchmark indices opened gap-down today(2nd March 2022) snapping their two-day previous gains as global market sentiment soured amid soaring oil and commodity prices. The BSE Sensex fell 700 points to 55,544, while the NSE Nifty was at 16,634, lower by 159 points. Among the Sensex-30 constituents, Tata Steel, PowerGrid, NTPC, Tech M, M&M, Reliance were the top gainers, up 0.3-3 percent. ICICI Bank, Maruti, Asian Paints, HDFC twins, Kotak Bank, Ultractech Cement, IndusInd Bank, and Axis Bank, meanwhile, were the top drags, trading 1.4-3 percent lower. On the Nifty, Coal India, ONGC, Hindalco, Tata Steel were the top performers, trading 3-4 percent higher, while Bajaj Auto was the additional top laggard on the index, down 4 percent. Read more

For the global equity markets, it was a very tough time over the past few weeks as they have battled several headwinds, including the recent geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine that has also triggered a sharp rise in commodity prices. Market experts say the market fall was a knee-jerk reaction to the Russia – Ukraine conflict and are likely to witness a choppy phase before discounting this development and staging a sharp rebound. Over time, equity markets have generally overreacted near the geopolitical risks. Read more

India’s demand for oil & gas has been cut by S&P Global Platts amid the second wave of Covid cases that have triggered lockdowns across key states since the past few weeks. For 2021, it now pegs the oil demand growth at 350,000 barrels per day (b/d), down from a forecast of 485,000 b/d made in February – translating into a fall of nearly 28 percent. India's city gas demand, Platts said, could drop by 25 – 30 percent in the coming months. However, once the lockdowns are lifted, Platts expects the pent-up demand to get released, which in turn will act as a catalyst for economic growth and trigger a demand uptick for oil & gas in the country. Besides India, the demand forecast for 2021 has been revised down for Western Europe and Latin America due to more restrictions stemming from the second and third waves of Covid. Brent oil prices, WU said, will peak in mid-2021 at over $70 per barrel. Read more

A sharp surge in bond yields and rising commodity prices have come back to haunt equity markets, with most analysts expecting a limited upside for the equity markets. Today(26th Feb.2021), Asian stocks traded sharply lower after Wall Street's main indexes tumbled, with technology-related stocks under pressure following a steep rise in benchmark US Treasury yields, which hit their highest level since the pandemic began – up 14 basis points (bps) at 1.5286 percent. The surge came on the back of expectations of a strong economic expansion and related inflation. “In line with the global trend, Indian yields have definitely bottomed out. Since the expansionary budget in February, Indian 10-year is up 28 bps to 6.18 percent despite RBI’s verbal and explicit market support. The gap between earnings yields (1/Nifty one-year forward PE) to 10-year bond yield is now at 156bps, which is 57bps higher than the long-term average,” said an expert. Read more