The day to start on a flat note
Welcome to the final trading sessions of the week. Yesterday’s session was a roller coaster ride for market participants on D-street, where the markets ended in the red. However, Friday morning looks like there is a change in sentiments for the markets and this change is fueled by Asian peers, which are seen advancing in early deals. The Indian markets may witness a modest uptick at the start, with the SGX Nifty trading higher by 27 points at 12,071 levels. Every passing day, Mr. Market is being challenged with evil tidings - the most recent one being no rate cut by RBI and its decision to downgrade the full-year GDP growth forecast to just 5 per cent. However, in spite of this, the Nifty has not given up and has held above the 11,980-12,000 mark. It seems the markets are anticipating some big news or some pleasant announcements. For now, the first thing for the bulls would be to climb above the 12,140 mark and close the week right at the top, which will confirm the resilience of the bulls.
On the Asian side, the markets were seen advancing in early deals with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, gaining the most in the region as it trades higher by 0.90 per cent. Nikkei 225 and Shanghai Composite are up by 0.26 and 0.14 per cent, respectively.
Back home, the markets ended the volatile session on a negative note on Thursday after the monetary policy committee of the RBI, in a surprise decision, kept its report rate unchanged and revised its GDP growth for FY20 to 5 per cent as compared to earlier estimates of 6.1 per cent. The BSE Sensex closed down by 0.17 per cent and the Nifty ended lower by 0.21 per cent. The broader market saw a mixed trend as Nifty Midcap dipped 0.18 per cent while Smallcap closed up by 0.14 per cent. Talking about the sectoral performance, Nifty Media and Nifty IT were top gainers. On the flipside, Nifty Metal was the top decliner, followed by Nifty PSU Bank.
In overnight development, the US stocks eked out modest gains on Thursday after spending the majority of the day in negative terrain. House Democrats announced that it will proceed with articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. In economic news, Jobless claims surprisingly fall and trade deficit narrowed in October. At the end of the session, Dow added 28 points, the S&P 500 rose 5 points, and the NASDAQ inched up 4 points. Going ahead, a host of economic data is due to be released on Friday, which includes closely watched monthly jobs report. Meanwhile, a mixed trend was seen in the European markets on the back of conflicting headlines surrounding any progress of a trade deal.