November opens with concerns amidst lots of uncertainty

The Nifty closed October with a gain of 3.51 per cent at 11,877. We begin November with a double whammy. At first, the output of the eight core infrastructure industries contracted by 5.2 per cent in September and after that, trade war concerns came to the forefront after officials from China doubted about a long-term comprehensive deal with the US. Both of these news could play a spoiler in the party that investors and traders are currently reveling in. Early indication from the SGX Nifty indicates that the bears are finding some space among the rampaging bulls to come back. the index may start with a setback of some 7 points in the morning and would likely to consolidate. Since the Friday closing is very important, it would be interesting to see who has the upper hand at the end of the day. Meanwhile, some of the key driving factors for the market, such as auto sales figures for October, will start to trickle and several actively tracked stocks, such as Yes Bank, Kansai Nerolac, Dr. Reddy’s Lab, and JSW Energy, will come out with July-September quarter results.
 
On the Asian front, markets traded mixed this morning as US-China trade uncertainty flared back after a report suggested that the latter doubted a long-term comprehensive deal. Except for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, all other markets are trading in negative. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down by 0.41 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was seen trading with minuscule losses of 0.02 per cent.
 
Back home, the bulls continued to march ahead with the key benchmark indices logged gains for the fifth consecutive trading sessions. However, indices came off from day’s high as steep volatility was observed at the tail end of the session, mainly due to the monthly expiry of F&O contracts. At the end of the session, Nifty registered gains of 0.28 per cent and BSE Sensex rose 0.19 per cent. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap outperformed frontline gauges by registering gains of 1.4 per cent while Nifty Smallcap gained 0.4 per cent. On the sectoral front, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Media emerged as top gainers, while Nifty Metal and Nifty Private Bank were the top losers.
 
In overnight developments, the US markets ended lower, with the S&P 500 Index retreating from its all-time high levels, as trade-war concerns came to the forefront. A report indicated that some officials from China doubted that a trade deal would complete. Further, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, scheduled to be held in Chile, where the leaders from the US and China were supposed to meet to sign an interim trade deal, was canceled because of violent protests. However, strong earnings from Apple and Facebook helped limit the downside for the markets. In the end, the Dow slipped 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 Index lost 0.3 per cent, and the NASDAQ Composite slipped 0.1 per cent. The European markets, too, ended in the red.