Morning News Call – India, March 4

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    FACTORS TO WATCH
    9:30 am: Junior Finance Minister Anurag Thakur at ASSOCHAMs Capital Market
Summit in Mumbai
10:00 am: NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar at CEAIs seminar in New Delhi.
    
    LIVECHAT- EQUITIES WATCH 
Reuters stocks correspondents in London and New York to discuss how coronavirus
worries have hit bourses on both sides of the Atlantic. To join the conversation
at 07:30 pm IST,click on the link: refini.tv/2P8N0Wp
    

    INDIA TOP NEWS
     Global supplier India curbs drug exports as coronavirus fears grow
    India, the world's main supplier of generic drugs, has restricted the export
of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients and the medicines made from them, including
Paracetamol, a common pain reliever also sold as acetaminophen, as the
coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with supply chains.
     India's February gold imports drop 41% as prices hit record high
    India's gold imports plunged 41% in February from a year earlier as a rally
in local prices to a record high squeezed retail demand, a government source
said on Tuesday.
     POLL - India housing market to keep struggling this year
    India's housing market is likely to struggle throughout 2020 as sluggish
demand and a weak economic outlook overpower recent government efforts to boost
activity, a Reuters poll of market experts found.
     India's electricity supply rises 7.1% in February
    India's electricity supply rose 7.1% during February, provisional government
data showed, marking the second straight month of growth after five straight
months of decline.
    
    
    GLOBAL TOP NEWS
     WHO warns of global shortage of medical equipment to fight coronavirus
    The World Health Organization on Tuesday warned of a global shortage and
price gouging for protective equipment to fight the fast-spreading coronavirus
and asked companies and governments to increase production by 40% as the death
toll from the respiratory illness mounted.
     Biden wins seven states on Super Tuesday, Sanders takes two -network
projections
    A resurgent Joe Biden was projected to win seven large states on Tuesday,
and front-runner Bernie Sanders captured two states with several others too
close to call on the biggest day of voting in the 2020 Democratic presidential
nominating race.
     Fed cuts rates to blunt coronavirus impact, markets drop
    The U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Tuesday in a bid to shield
the world's largest economy from the impact of the coronavirus, but the
emergency move failed to comfort U.S. financial markets roiled by worries about
a deeper, lasting slowdown.
        
    
    LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK
    (As reported by NewsRise)
     SGX Nifty nearest-month futures were trading 0.3% lower at 11,238.50.
     The Indian rupee is expected to rise against the dollar after the U.S.
Federal Reserve made a 50-basis-points emergency rate cut, citing the growing
threat from the novel coronavirus.
     Indian government bonds are expected to open higher, as U.S. Treasury
yields slumped to record lows after an emergency rate cut by the U.S. Federal
Reserve. The yield on the benchmark 6.45% bond maturing in 2029 is likely to
trade in a range of 6.25%-6.31% today.
    
    
    GLOBAL MARKETS
     Wall Street tumbled in a volatile session on Tuesday after the U.S.
Federal Reserve surprised investors with a half percentage-point cut in interest
rates, amplifying fears about the magnitude of the coronavirus' impact on the
economy.
     Asian shares wobbled and bonds held gains, as an emergency rate cut from
the U.S. Federal Reserve did little to soothe investor fears over the
coronavirus's widening fallout.
     The dollar fell to a five-month low versus the yen after an emergency 50
basis point cut in interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve was deemed
insufficient to offset downside risks posed by the global spread of the
coronavirus.
     U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields on Tuesday slid below 1% for the
first time, after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by half a
percentage point in an emergency move to ease the economic fallout from the
fast-spreading coronavirus.
     Oil prices rose more than 1% on expectations that major producers have
moved closer to an agreement to enact deeper output cuts aimed at offsetting the
slump in demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
     Gold prices rose after surging more than 3% in the previous session as the
U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates to help soften the economic blow from
the coronavirus outbreak.
    
    
        
                   CLOSE        FII INVESTMENTS  EQUITIES        DEBT
 PNDF spot         73.14/73.17  March 3          (300.61) crore  (1,983.10) crore
 10-yr bond yield  6.34 pct     Month-to-date    (3,641) crore   (4,248) crore
                                Year-to-date     10,302 crore    13,799 crore
 
(FII investment numbers are in Indian rupees. Source: National Securities
Depository Limited)    
 
        
    For additional data:
    India govt bond market volumes                 
    Stock market reports                
    Non-deliverable forwards data              
    Corporate debt stories               (IN CORPD)
    Local market closing/intraday levels (IN SNAPSHOT)
    Monthly inflows                      (INFLOWS RTRS TABLE IN)
    
    ($1 = 73.03 Indian rupees)
 

 (Compiled by Pranay Prakash in Bengaluru)