Negative start for the markets!

The onslaught by bear that began in the second half of the trading session is likely to continue today as well, since SGX Nifty indicates a negative start for the markets. Global cues are also dreadful on the back of weak US economic data as corporate earnings has been severely impacted by the spread of COVID-19. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading with losses of 62 points at 8,863 levels. Market participants will keep eye on earnings of IT bellwether TCS, which is scheduled to be released today.    

Majority of Asian markets were trading lower on Thursday on the back of weak cues overnight from Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has shed 1.2 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped by 0.60 per cent, while China’s Shanghai Composite was trading flat.

Back home, Wednesday’s session turned out to be a wobbly one, where markets erased its entire gains of first half and ended the day with steep losses. BSE Sensex lost 1.01 per cent and Nifty ended down by 0.76 per cent. The broader markets outperformed wherein, both Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap ended higher by 1.28 and 1.26 per cent, respectively. The sectoral indices witnessed a mixed trend wherein, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Media, Nifty Metal and Nifty IT ended in green, while on flipside, indices like Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Bank were the top losers.

US stocks suffered steep losses on Wednesday’s with the bulls erasing all its previous session gains amid horrific US economic data. Advance retail sales for March fell 8.7 per cent MoM and Federal Reserve’s industrial production dropped 5.4 per cent MoM in March. Additionally, National Association of Home Builders released a report showing homebuilder sentiment in April stumbled by a record to 30 from March’s unrevised 72. In the end, Dow fell 1.9 per cent, S&P 500 plunged 2.2 per cent and Nasdaq Composite declined 1.4 per cent. European Indices also ended the session in red.