Markets to start on a cautious note on Thursday

The Indian stock markets are likely to witness a slow start as there is no clear trend emerging in the global markets. At the time of writing, the SGX Nifty was trading down by 10 points at 10,846 mark. In the previous session, despite a gap-up opening, the indices failed to sustain at higher levels and closed below the opening price. We continue to reiterate that the current sentiment and structure of markets is like every rise is a selling opportunity, so ‘Sell on rise’ as on the charts there is more bad than good at this juncture. Note that the important support for the Nifty is placed around 10,740 mark.

There is no clear visible trend emerging in the Asian stock markets in early deals on Thursday following a mixed close on Wall Street overnight after Fed lowered interest rates by a quarter of a percentage points but possibly last time for this year. In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 1.01 per cent and market participants now look ahead to the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy decision due later today, meanwhile the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the China’s Shanghai Composite were down by 0.57 and 0.17 per cent, respectively.

Back home, the benchmark indices managed to post modest gains on Wednesday amidst high intraday volatility. The BSE Sensex rose 0.23 per cent and the NSE Nifty gained 0.21 per cent. The broader indices also performed reasonably well with Midcap and Smallcap adding 0.32 and 0.26 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, Nifty Realty, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal were the top gainers. On the flipside, Nifty Media was the top loser, while Nifty Pharma, Nifty Auto and Nifty Private Bank closed briefly in the red. The advance-decline ratio was leaned towards advancers as out of 1941 stocks, 920 stocks advanced, 889 declined, and the rest remained unchanged. Tobacco stocks were seen buzzing in the session after cabinet announced ban on e-cigarettes.

Major US stocks indices saw considerable volatility on Wednesday before closing on a mixed note. As widely expected, the Fed reduced interest rates by 25 basis points, but doubts emerged around any rate cut in the future. Overall, the Dow ended higher by 0.1 per cent and the S&P 500 added 1 point, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 9 points.

Majority of the European markets nudged higher on Wednesday. Germany’s DAX added 0.14 per cent and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.09 per cent. However, the UK’s FTSE 100 declined 0.09 per cent.