Positive opening on cards

On the weekly expiry day, the Nifty witnessed a handsome recovery from the lows of about 11,800 mark and closed in the positive terrain with a negative advance-decline ratio. Although it closed in the positive, it formed a lower high and lower low. The early indications from SGX Nifty suggest that the markets are likely to extend the gains of the previous session and the bias is anticipated to be on the positive. However, the big question is, if the Nifty will continue to trade in the range of 11,800-12,050, which it has been doing for almost a couple of weeks? Or, is there a chance for us to see a decisive move out of this range today, which may lead to a trending move in the coming week? Well, we believe that the Nifty will continue to trade in this band of 11,800-12,050 as there are no major cues to push the markets beyond this moment at this point. As I write this, SGX Nifty is trading 25 points higher at the 11,922 mark.
 
The markets in Asia were trading mixed in the early deals on Friday as China stands firm on the demand of tariffs to be lifted b the US to reach trade war deal. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up by 0.71 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose by 0.19 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite dipped 0.38 per cent.
 
Back home, the key benchmark indices ended the session with modest gains after oscillating back and forth in a range. The Nifty ended up gaining 0.27 per cent and the BSE Sensex gained 0.42 per cent, respectively. A divergent trend was seen in the broader markets, with Nifty Midcap adding 0.31 per cent while the Smallcap losing about 0.06 per cent. The mixed trend was seen on the sectoral front, with Nifty Financial Service and Nifty IT emerging as the top gainers while Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma becoming the top decliners.
 
In overnight developments, the US markets were choppy throughout the day and ended the sessions nearly where they began since continued uncertainty surrounding the trade and some mixed earnings kept market participants on the fence. The S&P 500 added 3 points to end the session at an all-time high while the Dow and the NASDAQ ended with modest losses. The European markets ended Thursday’s session with losses as US-China trade uncertainty continued to hamper the sentiment. In the economic news, Germany’s economy grew slightly in Q3, exceeding the expected -0.1 per cent contraction and narrowly avoiding a technical recession.