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INDIA TOP NEWS • India services activity accelerates in Feb as demand strengthens - PMI Activity in India's huge service sector accelerated in February, partly due to an increase in domestic new business which induced firms to maintain a solid hiring pace, a private survey showed on Tuesday. • Indian central bank fines 19 lenders for non-compliance on SWIFT use India's central bank has fined at least 19 lenders, including top banks such as ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, for failing to comply with its guidelines on the use of global payments network SWIFT. • India's February jobless rate climbed to 7.2 percent - CMIE The unemployment rate in India rose to 7.2 percent in February 2019, the highest since September 2016, and up from 5.9 percent in February 2018, according to data compiled by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) that was released on Tuesday. • India, Pakistan resume barter trade amid tension in contested Kashmir India and Pakistan resumed barter trade at a border crossing in Kashmir on Tuesday, an Indian official said, but tension in the contested region continued with a general strike and more fighting between Indian security forces and separatists. • Canada's Caisse pension fund to invest $255 million in Edelweiss arm Edelweiss Group said on Tuesday CDPQ Private Equity Asia will invest over 18 billion rupees in ECL Finance Limited, the group's non-banking financial company arm. • India to reimburse freight for exports of some farm products Indian government will provide federal support for the transportation of some farm products to make Indian goods more competitive in foreign markets, the government said in a statement on Tuesday. GLOBAL TOP NEWS • North Korea rebuilds part of missile site it promised Trump to dismantle North Korea has restored part of a missile launch site it began to dismantle after pledging to do so in a first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last year, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency and two U.S. think tanks reported on Tuesday. • Carlos Ghosn, jailed for over 100 days, set to be released on bail Former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn was set to be released on an $8.9 million bail, giving the once-feted executive fresh impetus to build a defence against what he has called "meritless" financial misconduct charges. • Tesla blames misprinted label for China customs hiccup Tesla said on Tuesday that China's customs authorities have accepted the electric carmaker's plan to resolve problems with the clearance of its Model 3 sedans that centred around misprinting of labels. LOCAL MARKETS OUTLOOK (As reported by NewsRise) • SGX Nifty nearest-month futures were up 0.2 percent at 11,060, from its previous close. • The Indian rupee is expected to open little changed against the dollar as better-than-expected U.S. services and housing data will likely offset dollar-selling interest from interbank and exporters. • Indian government bonds are likely to open higher, as a fall in crude oil prices raised hopes of slower inflation rate and further strengthened bets of policy easing. The yield on the benchmark 7.17 percent bond maturing in 2028 is likely to trade in a 7.52 percent-7.58 percent band today. GLOBAL MARKETS • Wall Street's main indexes dipped in a choppy session on Tuesday as a drop in General Electric shares countered positive retailer earnings and investors eyed a key resistance level for the benchmark S&P 500 after the market's strong run. • Asian stocks clung to tight ranges, as investors awaited fresh directional cues from U.S.-China trade negotiations and a weaker Wall Street finish capped broader gains, while robust U.S. economic data supported the dollar. • The dollar held gains against its peers, thanks to higher U.S. yields and better-than-expected data, while its Australian counterpart took a knock after disappointing economic growth figures for last quarter. • Revived fears about the progress of U.S. trade negotiations with China muted an earlier jump in U.S. Treasury bond yields on a report showing business activity and spending jumped in non-manufacturing sectors in February. • Oil prices fell, as bullish output forecasts by two big U.S. producers and a build in U.S. crude stockpiles outweighed ongoing OPEC-led efforts to rein in crude production. • Gold held steady, after recovering from more than five-week lows in the previous session, drawing support from choppy equities, while a stronger dollar capped gains. CLOSE FII INVESTMENTS EQUITIES DEBT PNDF spot 70.49/70.52 March 5 $106.71 mln $31.35 mln 10-yr bond yield 7.55 pct Month-to-date - $69.33 mln Year-to-date $2.66 bln -$2.10 bln 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 = 70.4690 Indian rupees) (Compiled by Yoganand KN in Bengaluru)
