SGX Nifty indicates a weak Wednesday at start

On Tuesday, the markets ended lower, with the benchmark indices halting their 7- day’s winning streak. Although the correction was mild as the markets bounced back from lower levels soon, the weakness of the preceding session is likely to continue on Wednesday. In early action, the SGX Nifty is seen sluggish and indicating a subdued start. At the time of writing, the index was trading down by 25 points at 11,936 mark. Big numbers, including Cipla, Canara Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, and Tata Steel are on tap today. 

In early trades on Wednesday, the Asian markets lacked clear direction amid mixed closed on Wall Street overnight. Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.06 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.31 and 0.12 per cent, respectively.

Back home, key equity indices saw a modestly positive start of the day; however, it failed to capitalize on the initial gains and, in the afternoon session, a sharp profit taking was witnessed. Thereafter, indices began to trade in the negative. Though towards the end of the session, indices saw a recovery from lower levels but the markets snapped their seven-day rising streak to end with a modest decline. The Nifty lost 0.20 per cent and the BSE Sensex dropped 0.13 per cent. The selling pressure was higher in the broader markets with the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap closing 1.08 and 0.84 per cent lower, respectively. On the sectoral front, barring Nifty FMCG, all other sectors ended in the red, with Nifty media, pharma and metal being some of the top losers. The advance-decline ratio was skewed toward decliners.

As for the global happening overnight, the US stocks failed to sustain an early move to the upside and they showed a lack of direction over the course of the session on Tuesday. The Dow and the tech-heavy NASDAQ creep up to new record closing highs but S&P ended down by 4 points. During the day, a couple of notable economic news got released. The nation’s trade gap narrowed to US$52.5 bn during September and the ISM non-manufacturing index edged up to 54.7 in October. The European equities market ended the session with modest gains, with optimism regarding the US-China trade front continuing to support the sentiment.