Opening bell rings losses for D-Street; volatility likely to be a hallmark of todays trade

In the last trading session, we saw that volatility raised its ugly head on D-Street and on Thursday. SGX Nifty is indicating opening bell losses to be seen on D-Street and the day promises to be another volatile trading day on the back of the expiry of weekly derivative contracts. Nifty is facing stiff resistance in the region of 12,020-12,025 and only a close above this level would give a sigh of relief to the bulls. Till then, brace yourself to face some music of volatility and safeguard yourself by following risk management rules.

Key results to watch out for today are as follows: Asian Paints, Biocon, Bajaj Auto, and SBI Card.

Asian markets were trading in negative terrain on Thursday while IMF released its regional Asia and Pacific Economic Outlook. It said that its forecasts remain “highly uncertain”. Adding salt to the wound was the news that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca dies. China’s Shanghai Composite went down by 1.08 per cent, followed by Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng that slipped 0.78 per cent and 0.43 per cent, respectively.

What a day of trade it was on D-Street on Wednesday! In the first half of the trading session, the bulls were seen in the high spirits as they were cruising along but all of a sudden, the markets were down in the dumps as a bout of selling pressure emerged. However, markets recovered from the lower levels and maintained their rhythm of positive close for the fourth straight day. Nifty and Sensex advanced 0.34 per cent and 0.40 per cent, respectively. A divergent trend was seen in the broader indices with Nifty Mid-cap ending up by 0.25 per cent whereas Small-cap lost 0.11 per cent, respectively.

On the sectoral front, Nifty Realty and Nifty Metal became standout performers, while Nifty FMCG and Nifty Media ended down by 0.94 per cent and 0.61 per cent, respectively. 

US stocks closed with a modest loss on Wednesday as investors and traders were seen building on positions reluctantly as a persistent rise in the new cases of Coronavirus tampered with the sentiment. Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq lost 0.4 per cent, 0.2 per cent, and 0.3 per cent, respectively. European indices ended lower, weighed down by the spread of the virus across the continent.