Sensex, Nifty stare at tepid start; 5 things to know before the opening bell today

While Nifty 50 ended lower on Wednesday, the midcap and smallcap indices ended the trading session in the green.

Sensex and Nifty stare at a tepid opening on Thursday with the SGX Nifty trading higher by only 6 points during the early hours of trade. On Wednesday equity benchmarks snapped a four day winning streak to end slightly lower. S&P BSE Sensex closed down by 37 points at 38,369 points while the Nifty 50 managed to stay just above the 11,300 mark. Analys claim that in the near-term the outlook for indices remains positive, however, weaker macro data and rising number of coronavirus in India do pose a threat. 

Global Cues: Equity markets in the United States ended higher on Thursday. NASDAQ jumped over 2% while Dow Jones and S&P 500 surged over 1% each. Major European stock markets too were in the green. However, Asian peers were mixed on Thursday morning. Shanghai Composite was trading flat while Hang Seng was down in the red. Stock markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were trading with gains.

Fear gauge recedes: The volatility index has been falling since August 3 to now reach levels that were last seen in February when equity markets were inching closer to their record highs. The fear gauge of the stock market has scaled down from its March highs of 83 levels.

Broader Markets outshine: While Nifty 50 ended lower on Wednesday, the midcap and smallcap indices were seen trading higher to end the day with gains. Nifty midcap and smallcap 50 have both gained over 6% since August 3.

Results today: Dalal Street is set to witness BPCL, Aditya Birla Fashion, Eicher Motors, Gail, Hero Motocorp, and Shriram Transport announce their quarterly results today.

Technical talk: “On Thursday or in the next few days, the Nifty 50 index must cross the 11380 level otherwise the index could slip as low as 11100 or 11000. However, if the Nifty 50 index reaches 11350/11360 level, it would be advisable to book profit on long position or reduce leveraged position,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities.