Bears to have an upper hand at the opening bell

The early indications from the SGX Nifty, which is flashing red, suggest that the selling pressure is likely to continue today. The global rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, has dampened the sentiments on D-Street by lowering its view from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ on the top Indian companies, including SBI, HDFC Bank, Infosys, TCS, BPCL, and several others. Further, adding fuel to fire would be the clouds of uncertainty looming over the US and China trade negotiations, especially after US President Donald Trump saying that he has not agreed to tariff rollback with China. At the time of writing, the SGX Nifty was down by 27 points at 11,919 levels. Market participants would spy with one big eye on the key macroeconomic data IIP, scheduled to be released today. Apart from this, the reporting of corporate earnings by big names, including Adani Ports, Britannia Industries, and Hindalco Industries, would command the attention of traders and investors today.
 
The Asian markets are mostly trading in red as a reaction to the abovementioned comment by President Donald Trump. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is the worst hit, plunging 1.65 per cent. The next China’s Shanghai Composite, which has lost 0.82 per cent, followed by Japan’s Nikkei 225, which dropped 0.16 per cent. Japan’s core machinery orders declined for a third straight month in September.
 
Back home, in a knee-jerk reaction to Moody’s lowering of ratings for India, the markets opened lower. However, traders and investors utilized the initial fall to initiate long positions and, as a result, benchmark indices trimmed entire losses and traded in positive terrain at one point of time, but a sharp sell-off emerged in the second half of trading session and indices reversed their two-days rising steak on Friday by the end of the session. The Nifty lost 0.86 per cent and the BSE Sensex dropped 0.81 per cent, respectively. The broader markets also ended in red, with the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap losing 0.49 and 0.32 per cent, respectively. Amongst the sectoral indices, barring Nifty Realty, Nifty Private Bank, and Nifty Bank, all other sectors closed in the red.
 
As far as the global market developments are concerned, the US equities edged higher on Friday, with the major averages closing at record highs. The favorable reading on the University of Michigan’s preliminary November consumer sentiment index, which rose to its best level since July, helped in improving the sentiment on Wall Street after word came from the White House that there was no agreement to roll back tariffs on China. Meanwhile, the renewed uncertainty over a potential trade deal between the two of the world’s largest economies rocked the European markets and, as a result, indices ended the session in the red.