Markets staring at a gap-down opening

With Western markets tanking on Friday and Asian peers are trading in deep red on Monday on the back of the spreading impact of the virus. Indian markets are also expected to open gap down on the back of negative cues from the global peers. Apart from coronavirus news, other major trigger for Indian markets would be US President Donald Trump on his first official trip to India. Market participants will closely monitor the two-day visit by US President as Mr Trump’s visit come amid tense trade talks between the two countries. The SGX Nifty is down by almost 90 points trading at 11,945 levels.

The Asian markets are trading in red on Monday as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread globally. South Korea’s Kospi led the losses among major Asian markets as it plummeted 3.28 per cent after South Korea reported new cases of the coronavirus and the total tally of infected patients in the country has crossed 700 mark as indicated by health authorities. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has plunged 1.65 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 0.94 per cent.  

Back home, on Thursday after a flat start, key benchmark indices slowly and gradually gathered some momentum to inch higher but selling pressure emerged in the afternoon session and Nifty and BSE Sensex trimmed their gains to end lower by 0.37 per cent, respectively. Nifty closed below 12,100 mark and BSE Sensex settled at 41,170 levels. Meanwhile, the broader markets outperformed the frontline gauges with Nifty Midcap and Small-cap gaining 0.67 and 0.36 per cent, respectively. Mixed trend was seen on the sectoral indices with Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal were top gainers, while Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG were top decliners.

In the western markets, US stocks plunged lower on Friday as continued uncertainty surrounding the impact of the coronavirus weighed on sentiments.  Further, news from the economic deteriorated the sentiment as Markit US Manufacturing PMI index for February declined. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell the hardest 1.8 per cent followed by S&P 500 which tumbled 1.1 per cent and the Dow slipped 0.8 per cent. For the week, Dow declined 1.4, the S&P slid 1.2 per cent and the Nasdaq fell 1.6 per cent. European markets too finished lower.