Upbeat start likely for the markets

The most significant thing this morning is that the SGX Nifty is indicating a positive start at D-street despite fading optimism over US-China trade negotiations. Let us look at what are the key catalysts this morning aiding the bulls for starters the FPIs camp pressed the buy button for the second straight as of Monday they bought shares worth of Rs 895.63 crore, further, FMCG major HUL reported a 21 per cent rise in Q2 profits and also, the fact that things have not progressively worsened on the volume front bring relief to investors.  While on the macro front, India’s retail inflation rate accelerated to 3.99 per cent in September, the highest after July 2018 and the most upsetting part was that food inflation saw a big jump in the month of September to 5.11 per cent from 2.99 per cent in August. This should keep the upward movement in check. On the corporate earnings front, over a dozen of corporates are scheduled to announce their earnings today few key names which include ACC, Karnataka Bank, MCX, SBI Life Insurance and Wipro. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was up by 45 points trading at 11,380 levels.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Index Nikkei 225 which resumed trading on Tuesday after an extended weekend is playing catch-up to the rally witnessed in the previous day has jumped 1.71 per cent. While, the China’s Shanghai Composite and the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index were trading with modest decline of 0.39 and 0.07 per cent, respectively.  

Back home, D-Street’s roller coaster ride extended into Monday’s session as the markets sold off sharply in the eleventh hour of the trading session and ended the day with modest gains. After a promising start, markets oscillated back and forth in a defined range during the initial hour of the session; however, it picked up momentum in the mid-morning session and rallied higher. At one point markets were trading higher by almost 1 per cent, however, a dent in the last hour trade brought the markets back to square one. The 50-share index Nifty added 0.32 per cent, while, the 30-share benchmark index represented by Sensex gained 0.23 per cent. In the broader market, both Nifty Midcap and Smallcap posted miniscule gains of 0.22 and 0.05 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, barring Nifty PSU and Nifty IT, all other sectoral indices closed in positive territory. Nifty Realty, Nifty Auto and Nifty Pharma were the top three gainers. Also, a special mention about the blockbuster listing of IRCTC, the stock delivered country’s best trading debut in two years as share price of the company more than doubled to mark a high of Rs 743 as compared to the issue price of Rs 320.

Globally, after a robust rally on Friday, the stocks took a breather in yesterday’s session. In the US, three major US indices, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended with modest losses with trade the likely culprit. Following last week’s optimism that the world’s two largest economies were homing in on the deal, but doubt crept in about the Phase 1 trade deal as a news report stated that China wants another round of talks before agreeing to the first phase of a trade deal. In the end, Dow dipped 29 points, the S&P 500 slipped 4 points and the Nasdaq dropped 8 points. European markets too were volatile yesterday and ended on a pressured side amid mounting uncertainty as the end-of-October Brexit deadline draws closers.