A perfect pitch to bat out for bulls
The markets showed some signs of strength in the previous session as the speed and urgency shown by multiple pharmaceuticals companies to find a resolution to COVID-19 is a good sign. Further, the optimism has been flamed after a report stated that Gilead’s drug is one of the most-watched therapies being studied for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Today, pharmaceutical stocks could be the centre of attraction again. Another thing commanding attention of the market participants can be the media brief of Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, which is scheduled at 10 am. This would be his second press briefing since the outbreak of COVID-19 in India. As per the reports, Governor may announce some important measure to ensure flow of liquidity in the system along with other measures of tackling problems faced by the economy due to Coronavirus. The mix of short covering and global cues will result in a strong opening for Indian markets. However, we suspect that some profit booking might be seen in the latter part of the day, as today is Friday i.e. the last trading day of the week. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty has skyrocketed 3.42 per cent and was trading at 9,295 levels.
A lovely morning it is for Asian indices rather, sea of green after a report said that Gilead Sciences drug showed promising results in treating COVID-19 patients. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 2.62 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.55 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.90 per cent.
Back home, the markets ended Thursday’s session on a positive note. Markets witnessed a negative start on the back of subdued cues from the global markets but soon, it recovered from lower levels and as the day progressed, the markets gained more strength. However, in the latter part of session, market turned volatile and ended the day with gains of 0.73 per cent (Sensex) and 0.76 per cent (Nifty). The broader markets too witnessed healthy buying interest as both Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap rose 2.34 and 1.81 per cent, respectively. Barring Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG, all the sectoral indices closed higher. Nifty Media, Nifty Bank and Nifty Pharma were the top gainers.
In overnight development, two contrasting moves were witnessed. On one hand, the tech-heavy surged over 1.5 per cent as Amazon & Netflix jumped to record closing highs as the companies benefitted from Coronavirus shutdown. On the other hand, Dow just managed to keep its head above the neutral line on the back of awful jobless claims. At the end of the day, Dow Jones was the weakest of the three major US stock market indices while, S&P 500 added 0.6 per cent. European markets closed in green on Thursday after reports surfaced that plans to ease lockdown could be seen in coming days.