Markets may open on a positive note following strong global cues

Tracking the strong leads from the US markets overnight and Asian peers, the indices are set to open on a positive note. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading higher by 10 points at 11,958 level. The market participants will keep a watchful eye on the Economic Survey to be tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in parliament today. Over the last week or so, we have seen markets getting stuck in a range due the lack of appropriate triggers, but the Union budget is likely to provide the markets with the much-needed trigger and, thereafter, which may lead to a directional trend.

A majority of the stock in Asian markets were trading in the green on Thursday tracking strong leads from the Wall Street overnight, where all three major stock indices finished at record levels. The Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 has added 0.33 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has risen 0.30 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was higher by 0.29 per cent.

Back home, frontline gauges eked out modest gains on Wednesday with Sensex and Nifty keeping their head above their crucial psychological levels of 39,000 and 11,900, respectively. The markets opened the session with a positive bias and traded in a capped range throughout the day before ending on a flat note. The broader market indices like Nifty Midcap and Smallcap gained more, thereby outperforming the frontline gauges. On the sectoral front, the top gainers were the Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Media and Nifty Realty, while top losers were Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma.

On the Wall Street, all three major stock indices finished at record highs on Wednesday as expectations grew that the Federal Reserve would adopt a more dovish stance as a batch of largely disappointing data provided enough evidence of a slowing economy. The Dow surpassed its earlier high of 26,828 reached on October 3 and closed higher by 0.67 per cent at 26,966. The S&P 500 set another record close, ending higher by 0.77 per cent at 2,996 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 0.75 per cent to close at 8,170, exceeding the record level of 8,164 registered on May 3.

The stocks in Europe rose sharply on Wednesday as market participants were seen enthusiastic about the announcement that Christine Lagarde, the current head of International Monetary Fund, will take over the reins of the European Central Bank. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.71 per cent and 0.75 per cent, respectively, and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.66 per cent.