10 Things You Should Know Before Opening Bell On April 1

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Wall Street | Concerns prevailed about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and its inflationary effect on prices while the Federal Reserve’s response also made investors jittery. On Thursday, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.56 percent to 34,678.35, S&P 500 ended at 4,530.41, shedding 1.57 percent, and Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.54 percent to 14,220.52.

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Asian Equities | Investors worried about the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war and rising risks. This led to a fall in most key Asian indices today. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.7 percent to 27,618.27 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.3 percent to 21,717.04. South Korean Kospi was down 0.6 percent at 2,740.31 but China’s Shanghai Composite bucked the negative Asian trend and gained 0.4 percent to 3,264.26.

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Dalal Street | On Thursday, both Nifty50 and Sensex closed 0.2 percent lower at 17,464.75 and 58,568.51, respectively.  Gains in consumer stocks and select heavyweights such as Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel were offset by IT and pharma counters. Choppiness persisted as traders rushed to square off their positions ahead of the expiry of monthly F&O contracts due by the end of the session.

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Crude Oil | US oil prices fell 7 percent to close just above $100 on Thursday as US President Joe Biden announced the largest ever release from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and called on oil companies to increase drilling to boost supply. US West Texas Intermediate futures for May delivery settled down $7.54, or 7 percent, at $100.28 a barrel, after touching a low of $99.66. Brent crude futures for May, which expired on Thursday, closed down $5.54, or 4.8 percent, at $107.91 a barrel. Brent crude oil futures, for June delivery, on the Intercontinental Exchange was up 0.2 percent at $104.95 per barrel.

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Rupee | The rupee advanced by 14 paise to close at 75.76 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking strong Asian peers and a fall in global crude oil prices. However, during the financial year 2021-22, the domestic unit depreciated by 264 paise or 3.61 percent against the American currency. (Continue reading here)

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Domestic gas prices | The government on Thursday more than doubled the price of domestically produced natural gas for the six months beginning April 1 on the back of a spike in global energy rates. (Tap to read further)

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Russia-Ukraine war updates | Top Indian-American US advisor and a key architect of Washington’s punitive economic sanctions against Moscow, Daleep Singh, on Thursday said that no one believes that Russia will come to India’s defence if China breached Line of Actual Control (LAC) again. (Click to read more)

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Stocks to watch | Shares of Vedanta, Lupin, Hero MotoCorp, Ruchi Soya Industries, Sterlite Technologies and Future Retail among others will be closely tracked today. Here is a list of stocks to watch out for in trade today.

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Trade setup | More of a rangebound action cannot be ruled out in the Nifty50 for now, say experts. Here is what the technical charts suggest for the coming session.