Negative start for the day
Indian markets will open after a gap of one day as on Thursday, the markets were closed on account of Ram Navami. As we enter the final trading session of the week, SGX Nifty is trading with losses of nearly half a per cent, indicating a negative start for the day. Today, the market participants will be all ears to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video message, which reportedly is set to be aired at 9 am wherein, the Prime Minister will address the nation on control of the spread of COVID-19 as well as discuss further steps to be followed related to the pandemic. Further, caution could be the buzzword on D-Street ahead of a long three-day weekend as the markets will remain closed on Monday too.
Asian indices are trading mixed on Friday despite strong overnight gains on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has added 0.31 per cent while, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.51 per cent and China’s Shaghai Composite slipped 0.34 per cent.
Back home, a sudden surge in the cases of Coronavirus and weak auto sales dragged the markets lower as the key benchmark indices witnessed a steep fall of about four per cent. Nifty closed at 8,254 level and BSE Sensex settled at 28,265 mark. In the broader market, Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap declined by 2.08 and 1.58 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, all the sectoral indices ended in red wherein Nifty IT, Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank were the top losers.
On Thursday, US stocks swung widely between gains and losses before finishing the day significantly higher. Under economic news, US jobless claims almost doubled to record 6.6 million in the latest week. This is an indication of extreme pain on the main street across the world. However, the market participants shrugged off miserable jobless claims as there was a surge in crude oil prices on the back of comments from US President Donald Trump, believing that Russia and Saudi Arabia could end their price war soon. At the end of the day, Dow jumped 2.2 per cent, S&P 500 spiked 2.3 per cent and Nasdaq rose 1.7 per cent. European stocks too changed their course after reports indicated an end to the crude oil price war.