Positive opening likely on the back of sharp fall in crude prices

Much to our delight, it seems that the Indian markets may witness a positive opening on Wednesday. As the saying goes, someone’s loss is always another’s gain and the sharp fall in crude oil prices is certainly a big positive for the Indian markets. Too much supply combined with demand concerns led to a sharp drop in crude oil prices on Tuesday. The SGX Nifty is trading up by 66 points and indicates that Nifty may open around the level of 10,238. Among Nifty 50 companies, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Wipro will declare their quarterly earnings today.  
  
Majority of the Asian markets are trading with modest loss on Wednesday following lower close on the Wall Street overnight. China’s Shanghai Composite Index has shed 0.31 per cent, Japanese Nikkei 225 has weakened 0.12 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has dipped 0.15 per cent.
  
Back home, bears continued to be in a dominant position on Dalal Street as the frontline indices extended their southward movement for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday. The Nifty index closed below the 10,150 mark and the BSE Sensex settled below the 33,850 mark, with losses of 0.96 and 0.84 per cent, respectively. The broader markets performed in line with frontline indices as both Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap lost 0.86 and 1.21 per cent, respectively. Among sectoral indices, barring Nifty Realty which closed almost flat, all other indices ended in the red, with Nifty Pharma and Nifty IT being the top losers.  
  
The US stocks staged a smart recovery, gaining back most of the earlier losses and ended Tuesday session moderately lower. An early sell-off on Wall Street was seen amid softer-than-expected earnings report from Dow members 3M and Caterpillar and weakness seen in overseas markets. In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down by 126 points, the S&P 500 lost 15 points and the Nasdaq slipped 31 points.     
  
Tuesday turned out to be a terrible day for the European markets as all the indices ended the session sharply lower after European Commission rejected the Italian budget offer and suggested that the Italians should reconsider their proposal. The DAX of Germany was hit the hardest as it plummeted 2.17 per cent, the CAC of France fell 1.69 per cent and the UK’s FTSE 100 tumbled 1.24 per cent.