Bulls likely to hit a century at opening bell

The sentiment on the D-street is likely to turn cheerful today thanks to the comments by US President Donald Trump, which indicated the US and Iran to hold back from further military action. Early trend on SGX Nifty suggests that bulls are likely to hit a century at opening bell and open around 12,194 level. Meanwhile, the World Bank lowered its growth estimate for India to 5 per cent for the current fiscal from the earlier projection of 6 per cent.

The Asian markets are seen advancing on Thursday on the back of positive cues overnight from Wall Street and the statement by the US President Donald Trump acted as music to bull’s ears, as US-Iran appeared to ease. The Japanese Nikkei 225 has climbed a huge 473 points and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has surged 325 points while China’s Shanghai Composite was up by  0.76 per cent.

Back home, the fear of a possible escalation in geopolitical tension between the US and Iran, after the latter launched a missiles attack on the US troops at Iraqi airbases, triggered a gap-down opening. Thereafter, the markets recovered from lower levels and ended the day with modest losses on Wednesday. Nifty lost 0.23 per cent to close at 12,025 and BSE Sensex shed 0.13 per cent to finish at 40,818.  In broader markets, a divergent trend was witnessed with Nifty Midcap adding 0.31 per cent while Nifty Smallcap lost 0.31 per cent. On the sectoral front, barring Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG, all other sectoral indices ended in the red. Nifty Auto and Nifty Metal were IT major decliners.

In the overnight trade, the US stocks got off to a positive start on Wednesday and advanced sharply at mid day, as sentiment turned positive after the US President Donald Trump delivered a statement responding to attack by Iran, indicating that the US would hit Iran with new sanctions but backed away from further military action. The Dow jumped 161 points to 28,745, the S&P 500 added 16 points, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ ended the session at new record closing high. The European markets recovered from early set back, as US President Trump confirmed that the strikes had not harmed any Americans and that Tehran appeared to be standing down.