Markets may open in the red following negative global cues

Indian benchmark indices are likely to open tad lower on the final trading session of the week amid free fall on the Wall Street in overnight trading and negative cues prevailing in the Asian markets. Going ahead, traders will keep an eye on Nikkei Indian Services PMI for December. The SGX Nifty suggests that Nifty may open around the level of 10,716, down by 4 points.  
  
Majority of the Asian indices are trading in the red on Friday after Wall Street witnessed major sell-off overnight. Japanese stock market, which resumed trading from an extended new year break, has slumped over 3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite index has declined 0.23 per cent, while Hong Kong index Hang Seng has added 0.57 per cent.   
  
Back home, bears tightened the grip as the market registered a fall for the second consecutive session on Thursday with benchmark indices closing with losses of more than one per cent. The broader markets too ended in the red terrain with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap losing 0.83 and 0.83 per cent, respectively. Talking about the sectoral performance, all the sectors ended in the red with Nifty Metal and Nifty Media leading the fall.  
  
The bloodbath on the Wall Street continued as major averages witnessed drastic fall on Thursday. The carnage appeared to be triggered by the revenue warning from Dow member Apple even as a weaker-than-expected ISM manufacturing index exacerbated worries about a global slowdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2.83 per cent to close at 22,686, the S&P 500 index lost 2.48 per cent to finish at 2,448 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 3.04 per cent to end at 6,464.   

The European markets ended Thursday’s session firmly in the red. The DAX of Germany lost 1.55 per cent; the CAC of France decreased 1.66 per cent and the FTSE 100 of the UK slipped 0.62 per cent.