Asian Market Updates

Sensex, Nifty Seen Higher At Open As RIL Posts Strong Q4 Results

Indian shares look set to open higher at open after Reliance Industries beat street estimates with a 12.3 percent rise in its March quarter net profit, driven by higher refining and petrochemical margins. The company's turnover for the Jan-Mar quarter rose 45.2 percent from a year earlier.

However, state-run banks may come under selling pressure after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that banks will have to swallow losses as one of the measures to resolve the problem of non-performing assets and this is a top priority for the government.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty jumped around 1 percent on Monday and the rupee recovered by 17 paise to close at 64.44 against the dollar after results from the first round of French presidential elections helped ease concerns over political risks in Europe.

Asian stocks are trading mostly higher this morning, the dollar held steady and oil prices edged up after six consecutive sessions of losses, while the Canadian dollar fell after Trump administration announced plans to impose tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber imports.

Benchmark indexes in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea are up between 0.2 percent and 0.8 percent. As political risk in France fades, investors now wait for Trump to release details about his plan to overhaul the tax code on Wednesday.

The Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting is scheduled to be held on April 27, with most economists expecting the central bank to leave its policy unchanged. Similarly, no changes to interest rates or asset purchases is expected at Thursday's ECB meeting.

U.S. stocks surged overnight as market favorite Emmanuel Macron emerged on top in the first round of the French presidential election. The Dow and the S&P 500 climbed around 1.1 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.2 percent.

Banks led European markets higher on Monday amid bets that pro-EU Macron will emerge victorious over his far-right rival Le Pen in the final round of the presidential election on May 7.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index advanced 2.1 percent. The German DAX rallied 3.4 percent, France's CAC 40 index soared 4.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 2.1 percent.

by RTTNews Staff Writer

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