After a strong eight-day winning streak, Nifty and Sensex’s rally might be cut short on Thursday, as the SGX Nifty is trading in the red in the morning session. Nifty futures on the Singaporean exchange are at the 17,828.5 level, down by 51 points, indicating a negative start for the domestic equity indices, BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty. On Wednesday, the markets extended their gaining streak for the eighth day, as Nifty rose 0.5% to settle above 17,800 at 17,812 while Sensex ended 230 points higher, closing with gains of 60,393 points.
“The domestic market exhibited cautiousness in anticipation of the release of various economic data and the upcoming Q4 earnings season. The IT sector drove the optimism in the market as investors await the earnings releases of sector majors. Despite expectations of a cooling down of CPI inflation to below the RBI’s upper tolerance level, the persistence of sticky core inflation remains a concern,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Key things to know before share market opens
Wall Street Overnight
U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s March policy meeting revealed concern among several members of the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) regarding the regional bank liquidity crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.11%, the S&P 500 lost 0.41% while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.85%.
Asian Markets
Stocks in Asia-Pacific traded mixed as Japan’s Nikkei 225 was flat at 0.01% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index traded down, lower by 0.40%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.17% in its first hour of trade. China’s Shanghai Composite traded mildly higher by 0.01% while the Shenzhen Component dropped 0.5%.
Crude Oil
Oil prices eased in early trading on Thursday after rising for the previous two sessions as investors remained cautious due to lingering concerns over a U.S. recession and weaker oil demand. Brent crude fell 19 cents, or 0.2%, at $87.14 a barrel by 0116 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate slid 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $83.10.
FII/DII Data
Foreign institutional investors (FII) net bought shares worth Rs 1,907.95 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) net sold equities worth Rs 225.22 crore on 12 April, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.
F&O Ban
The National Stock Exchange has Balrampur Chini Mills and Delta Corp securities on its F&O ban list for 13 April. According to the NSE, stocks are prohibited in the F&O sector when they have exceeded 95% of the market-wide position limit (MWPL). During the F&O ban period, no new positions are permitted for F&O contracts in that stock.
Technical View
“The near term trend of the market continues to be positive. Though, Nifty placed at the swing highs, still there is no indication of any reversal pattern building at the highs. The next upside levels to be watched are around 18,200. Immediate support is at 17,700 levels,” said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities.
Bank Nifty View
“The Bank Nifty index continued its strong upward momentum and surpassed the immediate hurdle of 41,500. The index remains in buy mode and is likely to achieve the target of 41,800-42,000 levels on the upside where fresh call writing is visible. The index downside support stands at 41,500-41,400 levels and as long as this support is not breached on a closing basis the trend remains positive,” said Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities.
India’s CPI
Retail inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), fell to a 15-month low in March and below the 6% upper tolerance limit of the RBI after remaining above it for two months, as prices of most items, particularly in the food basket, moderated and a base effect came into play. Official data released on Wednesday revealed that retail inflation was at 5.66% in March 2023 against 6.95% a year ago.
FOMC Minutes
Several Federal Reserve policymakers last month considered pausing interest rate increases after the failure of two regional banks and a forecast from Fed staff that banking sector stress would tip the economy into recession, according to Reuters.