SGX Nifty indicates a gap-down opening
As for today, Indian markets will continue to ride the global cues, which, at current juncture, are being driven more by geopolitics than economics. Reports from media are stating that Iran has launched missile attacks on US facilities in Iraq. A possible military standoff is keeping the global markets on their toes. Volatility has gone up following this and will continue to remain so. SGX Nifty is trading down by 117 points, indicating a gap-down opening for the day. Meanwhile, the government has released the first advance estimates of the GDP for FY20 and is pegged at 5 per cent, down from 6.8 per cent in the year-ago period.
On the Asian side, concerns of escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran are looming large. The Japanese Nikkei 225 is down by a huge 461 points and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has shed 335 points. China’s Shanghai Composite is down by 0.73 per cent.
Back home, on Tuesday, the market’s snapped its two day’s losing streak and ended the day with gains of nearly half a per cent. Key benchmark started off the session on a strong note and the follow-up buying was seen in the initial hour of the trade. However, at higher levels profit booking was seen and, at the closing bell, the markets pared nearly of half of its gains from day’s high. Amongst the broader markets, Nifty Midcap and Small-cap outperformed the frontline gauges and ended higher by 0.69 and 1.21 per cent, respectively. All the sectoral indices ended in the green, with Nifty Realty and Nifty Media being the major advancers.
As for global happenings, the US stocks ended Tuesday’s session with losses, as concerns relating to escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran took center stage. However, stocks trimmed some of its losses, aided by news that the ISM non-manufacturing index recorded better-than-expected figures in December. At the closing bell, the Dow was down by 120 points, the S&P 500 dropped 9 points, and Nasdaq slipped 3 points. The European markets ended on a mixed note on Tuesday.