Pessimism to greet D-Street on first day of November series; earnings of Reliance Industries becomes talk of town

Though the end of October series was not a pleasant one but the bulls somehow dominated it as Nifty registered gains of nearly 8 per cent.

SGX Nifty indicates that pessimism is likely to greet D-Street at the beginning of the November F&O Series as the former was down by 36 points, trading at 11, 629 levels.

The zone of 11,540-11,600 is key support for the index and it’s important for the bulls to defend this territory as a breach of this on a closing basis can trigger a sharp decline with eventual targets of 11,400-11,262. Meanwhile, on the upside, the 20-DMA is likely to act as a big hurdle for the bulls.

Earnings season is likely to shift into high gear as nearly 80 companies are expected to report their earnings today. Key earnings on tap for the day are Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd, DLF, IndusInd Bank, Reliance, and UPL.

Asian stocks are mostly lower on Friday despite a rebound seen in the overnight trade on Wall Street as the rising cases of Coronavirus and uncertainty over the US Presidential election have pushed investors back. China’s Shanghai Composite is trading in green with minuscule gains of 0.19 per cent. While Japan’s Nikkei 225 extended its losses for the fifth straight day and trades below the 23,200 mark and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is also trading lower by 0.38 per cent below the 24,500 mark.

On D-Street, volatility was the hallmark on the final trading session of the October series expiry. Indian markets opened lower and saw erratic swings throughout the day to finally settle with losses of half a per cent. Nifty and Sensex slipped below its important psychological mark of 11,700 and 39,800, respectively. The broader indices ended lower wherein Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap lost 0.43 per cent and 0.92 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, barring Nifty IT, all other indices ended in red wherein Nifty Media, Nifty Auto and Nifty FMCG were the top losers.

US stocks put up a good show on Thursday amid a record rise in Q3 GDP growth while jobless claims continued to move lower. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the strongest of the three major US stock market indices, followed by S&P 500 and Dow. The stock of Facebook jumped nearly 5 per cent that assisted Nasdaq to post a gain of 1.6 per cent. European indices, after spinning between gains and losses, ended the session mostly lower. The key event of European Central Bank (ECB) was watched closely by the market participants. The outcome remained much on the expected lines as ECB left its key interest rates and stimulus unchanged.