Market Live Updates Today: Trends in SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 93 points

Two months into harsh COVID-19 lockdowns that have choked global supply chains, China's economy is staggering back to its feet, but businesses from retailers to chipmakers are warning of slow sales as consumers in the country slam the brakes on spending.

"The current China lockdowns ... has implications to both supply and demand," said Colette Kress, chief financial officer at US chipmaker Nvidia, which forecast on Thursday a $400 million hit to gaming sales from China's stringent coronavirus restrictions. read more

Retail sales in April shrank 11.1 percent year-on-year, after falling 3.5 percent in March. UBS and JP Morgan lowered their full-year GDP growth forecasts for China to 3 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, earlier this week.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth Rs 1,597.84 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained net buyers, to the tune of Rs 2,906.46 crore worth of shares on May 26, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Upcoming release of official data for economic performance is likely to register a 2.7 percent growth for the January-March period, and the FY22 growth is expected to be 8.5 percent, economists at SBI said on Thursday.

We believe the GDP projection for Q4 FY22 is clouded by significant uncertainties. For example, even a one per cent downward revision in Q1 GDP estimates of FY22 from 20.3 percent, all other things remaining unchanged, could push Q4 GDP growth to 3.8 percent, they noted.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, consistent with a labor market that remains tight amid strong demand for workers despite rising interest rates and tightening financial conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 210,000 for the week ended May 21, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The decline partially unwound some of the prior week's surge, which had pushed claims to their highest level since January.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 215,000 applications for the latest week. Some blamed the recent increase in applications to less generous seasonal factors in May, the model that the government uses to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data, relative to the prior two months.

The Reserve Bank will opt for a larger, 0.50 percent, hike in key rates at its next monetary policy review in June to protect medium term economic stability in face of the uncomfortable inflation situation, a British brokerage said on Thursday.

The central bank will likely revise its inflation estimate to 6.2-6.5 percent, which is way above the upper end of its tolerance band of 2-6 percent, economists at Barclays said.

"We expect the RBI to deliver another large interest rate hike in June, as above-target inflation could undermine medium-term economic stability,” its chief economist Rahul Bajoria said, adding that the quantum of rate hike can be 0.50 percent.

Oil prices eased slightly in early Asian trade on Friday, after surging to a two-month high in the previous session as investors focused on signs of tight global supply.

Brent crude futures fell 11 cents to $117.29 a barrel by 0:08 GMT. WTI crude futures for July delivery fell 19 cents to $113.90 a barrel. Prices have gained about 50 percent so far this year.

OPEC+ is set to stick to last year's oil production deal at its June 2 meeting and raise July output targets by 432,000 barrels per day, six OPEC+ sources told Reuters, rebuffing Western calls for a faster increase to lower surging prices. read more