Indian markets on slippery wicket ahead of Union Budget 2020

As the government decided to stick to its traditions of presenting the Union Budget on February 1, despite being a Saturday, the D-Street which follows a 5-day week calendar too have decided to remain open and why not! After all, Union Budget is a mega event for the financial markets in India. For the day, the only thing which matters would be announcements made by Finance Minister to help revive the animal spirit of the economy and events like the impact of virus would be of least importance in today’s session. No major directional move is expected in the initial part of the session. However, the action will begin once the Budget proposal start rolling in. Volatility is expected to be elevated and the 11,800 mark would be an important level to watch out. Currently, SGX Nifty is trading down by 44 points indicating a shaky and weak start.

Back home, the markets made a positive start, however, it soon pared its morning gains and swung both ways before ending near the day’s low. Nifty dropped 0.61 per cent to end below 12,000 mark and BSE Sensex lost 0.47 per cent to end at 40,724 level. The broader markets too ended in red with Nifty mid-cap and small-cap slipped 0.65 and 0.01 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, Nifty Realty, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Bank were the top gainers. On the flip side, Nifty Metal, Nifty Pharma, Nifty Auto and Nifty IT were the top losers.

In overnight development, the month of January concluded with a crash on Wall Street on the back of fears about the fast-spreading of coronavirus. Cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in over a dozen countries, including US, UK, Canada and China. Dow tumbled 603 points, S&P plunged 57 points and the tech-heavy fell 148 points. Following their counterpart, European indices too ended Friday’s session deep in red with the coronavirus death toll currently estimated to be above 200.