Another Black Friday for markets!

Early signs from SGX Nifty indicate that it could be another Black Friday like the previous week, where Indian markets had cracked sharply. Our call for the day would be waiting for the market to settle after initial volatility, as there could be an initial reaction to Coronavirus, which is taking a toll on global economy and no one has the answer where this Coronavirus is heading and that’s the scary part. For Indian markets, another pain in the neck will be the moratorium of Yes Bank. Yes Bank moratorium could create cascade effect across lenders. SGX Nifty has nose-dived 3.29 per cent and is trading below 10,900-mark.

On Friday, Asian markets are in a sea of red due to a sharp drop on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down by a staggering 3.06 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down almost two per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite has shed 1.07 per cent.

Back home, the markets witnessed yet another volatile trading session amidst weekly expiry. Markets opened higher and thereafter, it continued to trend upward. However, going into the second half, markets came off days high and erased all its intraday gains finally to settle the day with modest gains. Nifty and BSE Sensex gained 0.16 per cent each. The broader markets were in-line with headline indices, which ended the day with modest gains with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap adding 0.14 and 0.12 per cent, respectively. On sectoral front, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty FMCG surged over a per cent and ended as the top gainers. On flipside, Nifty Realty, Nifty Metal and Nifty Media were the top decliners.

In overnight development, US stocks witnessed steep losses as California declared a state of emergency after reporting its first COVID-19 fatality. Dow plunged 3.6 per cent, S&P 500 dropped 3.4 per cent and Nasdaq tumbled 3.1 per cent. European markets too posted steep losses amid renewed concerns about the impact of the speedily spreading Coronavirus outbreak on the global economy.