Negative vibes from Asian peers may see markets opening in the red

Investors mauled by the market fall have to get ready for some more battering. The ongoing weakness in the markets is likely to continue at-least at the start of the day as the vibes from Asian peers are negative and the SGX Nifty in early action is indicating a dull opening for the Indian markets. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty is trading around the 10,792 mark. 
  
Majority of stocks in Asia are seen in the declining mode, following the overnight release of the US retail data which saw biggest drop in nearly a decade. Hong Kong’s stock index Hang Seng has plunged 1.55 per cent; Japan’s Nikkei 225 has slipped 1.22 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite Index has lost 0.50 per cent. 
  
Back home, markets traded subdued and settled marginally lower on Thursday, but most importantly, the markets ended in the red for the fifth straight session. BSE Sensex slipped below the 36,000 mark and Nifty below the 10,750 mark, with both the indices losing 0.44 per cent each. The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap gaining 0.61 per cent and 0.66 per cent, respectively. Talking about sectoral performance, majority of the sectoral indices ended in the green, with Nifty Media and Nifty Pharma leading the gainers, while Nifty IT ending as the top loser.  
  
The US stock markets started Thursday’s session much lower after a report from the Commerce Department stated that December retail sales were 1.2 per cent lower than the previous month, which marks the largest decline since 2009. Also, a few key earning reports impacted the markets as well. All said and done, the stock prices managed to rebound as the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell stated that President Trump would sign the previously agreed government funding deal. In the end, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Index closed with marginal gains, while the Dow and S&P 500 dropped 0.41 per cent and 0.27 per cent, respectively. 
  
The European markets trimmed early gains and majority of the markets finished Thursday’s session in the red as dismal US retail sales data spooked investors. The DAX of Germany declined 0.69 per cent, the CAC 40 of France ended down by 0.23 per cent, while the FTSE 100 of the UK ended up by 0.09 per cent.  In the economic news, Eurozone Q4 GDP growth came in at 1.2 per cent YoY matching the estimates.