Cautious start for market as coronavirus fear re-emerges

After witnessing gains for two consecutive sessions, the bulls might be pushed on back foot and Indian markets may open on a soft note as the coronavirus fear is likely to re-emerge. Along with this, the weak macro data, which was released yesterday post market, could take its toll. Retail Inflation came in higher at 7.59 per cent in January while, IIP contracts 0.3 per cent in December. Rate sensitive stocks could take a hit in today’s session as the sharply higher inflation rate virtually rules out any scope for rate cuts in the next RBI policy, despite a low growth. Currently, SGX Nifty is trading down by seven points at 12,221 levels. On the result front, key stocks such as Nestle India, BPCL, Page Industries and Apollo Hospital Enterprise are scheduled to report their earnings today.

Asian markets are trading on a cautious note on Thursday, despite a record high closing overnight on Wall Street as China’s Hubei province reported 14,840 new coronavirus cases and 242 deaths on Thursday morning. These new numbers are the highest reported in a single day, since the outbreak began. China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were down by 0.23 and 0.19 per cent, respectively, while, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was trading in miniscule gains of 0.06 per cent.

Back home, the key benchmark indices advanced for the second day on Wednesday amid reports indicating the risk of coronavirus spreading further is fading away and it may be over by April. At the end of the day, Nifty closed at 12,200 mark, up by 0.77 per cent and BSE Sensex rose 0.85 per cent to close at 41,566 levels. The broader market indices like Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap closed lower by 0.20 and 0.24 per cent, respectively. Sectorally, the top gainers were Nifty FMCG, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Metal and Nifty Bank. The top losers were Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Realty and Nifty Pharma. 

Here is what happened in the western markets on Wednesday: On Wall Street, the equities notched record highs amid reports suggesting that the coronavirus may be able to contain. Dow led the way by jumping 275 points to 29,551, S&P 500 added 23 points to 3,381 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 87 points to 9726. European indices too ended in green.