Bulls to celebrate Valentine's Day with positive opening

The rally, which began in the last leg of trade yesterday, where Nifty recouped 35 points from lower levels, is likely to continue this morning as indicated by SGX Nifty, which is trading in green with gains of 35 points at 12,186. The first task for the bulls would be to move above 12,200 mark and if Nifty holds above 12,200 mark, we believe that it will try to test 12,272 mark. Standard & Poor’s maintained a ‘stable’ outlook, stating that despite a notable deceleration in India’s economy in the recent quarters, it believes India’s structural growth outperformance remains intact. In addition, the market participants will track corporate earnings and the WPI inflation numbers, which are scheduled to be released later in day. Telecom stocks may hog the limelight as the Supreme Court (SC) will take up the Telco’s plea, regarding the negotiation of AGR payment terms.

Majority of the markets in Asia were trading in green on Friday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up by 0.52 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.17 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has declined 0.52 per cent.  

Back home, the markets started off on a flat note, however, it witnessed selling pressure from the word go and thereafter, it remained in sideways trajectory. However, in the last leg of trade, a recovery was seen from the lower levels and at the end of the day, the markets closed with modest losses. Nifty dipped by 0.22 per cent to close at 12,175 and BSE Sensex shed 0.26 per cent to finish at 41,460. On the broader market front, Nifty mid-cap and small-cap dropped 0.24 and 0.02 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, it was a mixed performance. Nifty Pharma and Nifty IT were the top gainers, while on flipside; Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Bank were the top losers. 

In overnight development, US markets traded cautiously and ended Thursday’s session in red as a news broke out that the coronavirus cases have accelerated in China as a result of it tweaking its method for counting infections. Moreover, the top economic official Larry Kudlow stated US is disappointed with the way China is handling coronavirus epidemic. In economic news, jobless claim below projections and Consumer Price Index (CPI) inched up by 0.1 per cent in January after rising by 0.2 per cent in December. All told, Dow lost 128 points, S&P 500 shed 4 points and Nasdaq fell 14 points. European market too ended lower on Thursday.