Nifty to open flat today

In the previous trading sessions, markets celebrated the phase 1 of the trade deal but that did not last long as the markets gave away most of its gains. As we enter the final trading session of the week, the SGX Nifty is trading flat and is likely to be cautious ahead of the weekend. The level of 12,270 is crucial for the Nifty and breach of this would result into profit booking taking the markets down.

Watch important results today as index bellwether like Reliance Industries and TCS are scheduled to release their December quarter earnings later in the day. Trade on a stock specific basis and take some profits off the table to close the week.  Currently, the SGX Nifty is trading lower by 20 points at 12,350 levels. 

Asian markets are trending according to their western counterparts today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has advanced 0.49 per cent, China’s Shanghai composite has added 0.39 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.12 per cent.

Back home, markets were buoyant in the initial hour of the trading session on Thursday, the BSE Sensex touched the important psychological 42,000 mark and Nifty was within striking distance of touching a magical 12,400 mark. However, the key benchmark indices reversed sharply to pare its intraday gains and ended the day with modest gains. BSE Sensex was up by 0.14 per cent and Nifty added 0.10 per cent. Nifty mid-cap and small-cap continued to outperform frontline indices and they rose 0.83 and 0.54 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, barring Nifty Metal, all the sectoral indices ended in green. Nifty Media, Nifty Realty and Nifty Auto were the top gainers.

In US, the markets tracked some important corporate earnings and economic data to end the day at new record closing highs on Thursday. On one hand, there were some encouraging corporate earnings while, on the other hand, there were some upbeat economic data like jobless claims drop and retail sales rise. Further, the US Senate approved the trade agreement namely, United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) which boosted trader sentiment. All told, Dow jumped 267 points, Nasdaq climbed 98 points and S&P gained 28 points. Meanwhile, European equities ended on a mixed note.