Muted opening likely following mixed cues from Asian peers

Key benchmark indices are expected to witness a soft opening as cues from Asian markets are mixed and Wall Street's lacklustre session overnight. The RBI monetary policy will provide further direction to the markets. The recent softening in CPI inflation, disappointing IIP numbers have built-in hopes of a rate cut, or at least, a change in the policy stance. The SGX Nifty suggests that Nifty may open around 11,073, down by 31 points. Some of the major companies such as Aurobindo Pharma, Britannia, Cadila Healthcare, Grasim, SAIL and Tata Motors will announce their quarterly earnings. 

Asian markets are lacking a clear trend on Thursday following tepid close on the Wall Street overnight. The Japanese stock market Nikkei 225 has shed 0.66 per cent, while the Australian index has surged over 1 per cent. 
  
Back home, bulls dominated Wednesday’s trading throughout the day, helping indices to reclaim their crucial psychological levels, viz. Nifty 11,050 and BSE Sensex 36,950. Indices opened the session with a gap-up and then, for the rest of the session, they became only stronger to close near the day’s high. The broader market indices continued their underperformance, with Nifty Mid-cap and Nifty Small-cap closing with modest gains. On the sectoral front, buying was witnessed across all the other sectors, with Nifty Media and Nifty Metal ending as top gainers. 
  
The US stock markets put up a lacklustre performance on Wednesday as investors digested a mixed batch of corporates earnings and uncertainty about the trade talks between the US and China continued to hang over the markets. In economic news, the trade balance showed that the deficit narrowed more than expected, coming in at $49.3 billion in the month of November. The Dow Jones dipped 0.08 per cent to 25,390, the S&P 500 slipped 0.22 per cent to 2,732 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Index lost 0.36 per cent to close at 7,375. 
  
The European markets ended Wednesday’s session with modest losses in the wake of drop in German factory orders that seemed to stir up recession concerns. The DAX of Germany declined about 0.38 per cent and the CAC 40 of France and the FTSE 100 of the UK ended marginally lower.