Indices may open on positive note

SGX Nifty:

Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 31 points at the opening bell.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the nation at 10 am today. PM Modi's address comes a day after India made the achievement of administering over a billion Covid-19 vaccine doses.

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are mostly trading higher on Friday, as shares of China Evergrande Group surged in Hong Kong following media reports that the embattled developer is set to pay off a coupon payment on a dollar-denominated bond.

Evergrande has remitted the funds for a key interest payment that was due September 23 ahead of a 30-day grace period that ends on October 23, as per reports. The $83.5 interest payment on Evergrande's March 2022 offshore bond has been closely watched since the heavily indebted property developer warned twice in September that it may default.

In US, the S&P 500 posted a record closing high on Thursday, helped by gains in consumer discretionary and technology shares, while U.S. Treasury yields jumped.

On the economic front, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to a new low point since the pandemic erupted. Unemployment claims dropped 6,000 to 290,000 last week, the third straight drop, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the fewest people to apply for benefits since March 14, 2020, when the pandemic intensified.

Domestic markets:

Back home, the market declined for the third consecutive session on Thursday. Profit selling, weak Q2 results and negative global cues put pressure on bourses. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 336.46 points or 0.55% to 60,923.50. The Nifty 50 index lost 88.50 points or 0.48% to 18,178.10.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,818.90 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 428.45 crore in the Indian equity market on 21 October, provisional data showed.

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