Markets may open in the red tracking negative Asian cues

Key Indian equity indices are likely to open in red on the back of broadly negative Asian cues. The SGX Nifty is indicating that Nifty may open with a loss of 41 points at 10,716. 

Asian markets are a sea of red on Thursday taking cues from a slump in the US stocks that had tanked overnight. The losses are led by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which is down by 1.75%, followed by China’s Shanghai Composite which has lost 0.53%.   

Back home, despite a strong start, the Indian stock market ended flat on Wednesday. After a strong start, markets witnessed volatility in the second half of the trading session and the early gains faded away. The NSE Nifty settled at 10,718 with loss of 21 points and the BSE Sensex gained 16 points to end at 35,176. In the broader markets, profit-taking was intense as the Mid-cap and Small-cap indices slumped 1.49% and 1.17%, respectively. Majority of the sectors ended in the red, Nifty Metal and Nifty PSU Bank were top losers.  

In the US, stocks came under selling pressure in late-day trading on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve’s announcement of its latest monetary policy decision. The Federal Reserve held the interest rates steady, but the official statement from the committee gave no indication of the number of rate hikes on the cards. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished near the low of the session, losing  174 points to close at 23,925, the S&P 500 index slipped 19 points and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 30 points to end the day at 7,101.   

The European markets ended Wednesday’s session in the green on the back of some better-than-expected corporate earnings reports. The DAX of Germany surged 1.51%, CAC 40 of France added 0.16 and the FTSE 100 of UK gained 0.30%.