Market Ahead, April 22: Top Factors That Could Guide Markets Today

The big news today is again the oil meltdown which spread to the June contract overnight. The WTI crude price plummeted 43 per cent to below $12 a barrel as there seems to be no end in sight to a swelling global crude glut as the coronavirus pandemic has obliterated demand for fuel. Brent futures for June also slumped 24 per cent to close at $19.33 a barrel, their lowest level since February 2002, although the contracts recovered a tad early Wednesday.

Wall Street tumbled for a second straight day largely due to the collapse in US oil prices. The Dow Jones fell 2.67 per cent, while the S&P 500 lost 3 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.48 per cent.

Things are gloomy for Asian indices as well. Japan's Nikkei dropped over 1.5 per cent in early trading while Australian ASX 200 was down over half a per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also lost 1 per cent. After yesterday's over 3 per cent fall, the Indian markets are again expected to open lower and the SGX Nifty is indicating a cut of around 60 points at the start.

In today's session, Reliance Industries will be a major focus. The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate today announced that it has signed binding agreements for an investment of Rs 43,574 crore by Facebook into Jio Platforms. This will make Facebook the largest minority shareholder in the Indian company with 9.99 per cent equity stake.

Meanwhile, India's coronavirus cases have risen to over 20,000 now with 645 deaths, according to Worldometer. Globally, over 25 lakh people have been infected and 1.77 lakh have died so far.

Sebi has extended validity of regulatory approval for launching IPO and rights issue by six months in the wake of the pandemic. It has also reduced the threshold for minimum subscription requirements for a rights issue from the existing 90 per cent to 75 per cent of the offer size.

According to a Business Standard report, the RBI is actively considering introducing Standing Deposit Facility for liquidity management, based on which banks can park as much money as they want without getting collateral, and at a lower rate than the reverse repo.

And, let's end today's podcast with this report that says the sale of Air India is expected to be delayed for a second time, with the Centre planning to extend the last date for the expression of interest,from April 30 to a yet-to-be announced date.

Read by: Kanishka Gupta