Bears likely to continue their dominance

The colossal sell-off overnight on Wall Street as Centres for Disease Control (CDC) officials called the spread of Coronavirus in United States inevitable and this has triggered a negative sentiment in Asian markets as well. Early action at SGX Nifty is indicating a worrisome sign ahead for Indian markets as there are chances that we might open with a big gap down. SGX Nifty is indicating a loss of 76 point at opening bell in Nifty.    

Markets in Asia are under selling pressure on Wednesday, following an ugly crash in the overnight trade on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down by 1.10 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has dropped 0.75 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite has shed 0.20 per cent.

Back home, after starting the session on a positive note, the key benchmark indices soon gave up gains and traded with a high volatility to end the session finally in red and extended its losses for the third straight day. Nifty slipped below 11,800 mark and BSE Sensex closed at 40,281 down by 0.20 per cent. The broader markets too fell in-line with the benchmark indices like Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap shedding 0.30 and 0.21 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, indices such as Nifty Realty, Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty PSU Bank showed resilience while, other sectors such as Nifty Pharma, Nifty Auto and Nifty Media ended as the top decliners. 

On Tuesday, US stock markets crashed for the second straight day. Coronavirus was a spur for the selloff as the geographic footprint of the contagion continues to amplify. Dow led the losses as it plunged 3.2 per cent, S&P 500 fell three per cent and for the first time, it crashed more than three per cent in back to back sessions, since the financial crisis. While, the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 2.8 per cent. European indices also fell sharply for a second straight day on the back of alarming spread of the global Coronavirus outbreak.