Sights Set on RBI Policy Decision

Four consecutive days of incessant selling would have tried out the bear a bit and the positive close on the Wall Street in overnight trade would help the cause for the Indian markets as early indications from the SGX Nifty suggest that the bulls would have an upper hand at the opening bell. The SGX Nifty is trading higher by 24 points at the 11,383 levels. In today’s session, the market participants would be all ears to the wise men of the monetary policy committee as they will be break their huddle today and announce the central bank’s monetary policy. A 25 bps cut in repo rate is already factored in. What matters is the central bank’s future growth forecast. Also, today’s closing would be an important one as this would be the last trading session before we shut down for the week. 

The Asian markets were seen trading in a lacklustre mood in early deals on Friday. Japan’s Index Nikkei 225 has slipped 0.09 per cent and the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has dropped 0.24 per cent.

Back home, the markets continued their southbound journey on Thursday and registered the fourth straight day of losses. BSE Sensex slipped 0.52 per cent to settle at 38,107 and the Nifty shed 0.40 per cent to close at the 11,314 level. Two key factors which gave charge to the bears in today’s session were weak global cues and continued selling by FPIs in the domestic markets. The broader market indices ended in red though selling was miniscule as Nifty Mid-Cap and Small-Cap dipped 0.06 and 0.22 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, a mixed trend was seen with Nifty Metal and Nifty Bank emerging top losers and on the flip side Nifty Media and Nifty Realty were the top gainers. The advance-decliners ratio was skewed towards the decliners.

Volatility was the name of the game on Wall Street as Thursday’s session turned out to be a high-voltage volatile session. Initially, the US stocks were under selling pressure as the incoming economy data continued to tamper with the sentiments of investors. However, the stock rebounded as hopes of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve evoked series of back-to-back disappointing data. In the end, technology-heavy Nasdaq outperformed its counterparts, surging 1.1 per cent, while the S & P 500 and the Dow gained 0.8 and 0.5 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile in the European market, the stock ended mixed as traders digested the latest batch of economic data from the Euro area and trade tensions escalated with the US set to increase tariffs on goods out of the region.