SGX Nifty down 100 pts, suggests weak start for Sensex, Nifty; key things to know before market opens

Nifty futures were trading 99 points or 0.71 per cent down at 13,885.20 on Singaporean Exchange, suggesting a weak opening for BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 on the day of expiry of monthly derivative contracts. Corporate earnings, foreign fund flows, COVID-19 vaccine and Budget related developments will sway the market sentiment. Headline indices have wiped out all the gains made so far in the calendar year 2021, tumbling over 5 per cent from their record highs of January 21, 2021. Besides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda Summit today during which he will be speaking on a wide range of subjects, including India’s reform trajectory and increased usage of technology. Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities said that the near term trend of Nifty continues to be negative and the recent all-time high of 14753 could be considered as an important top reversal pattern. “The formation of reversal and the bearish candlestick pattern (three black crows) could signal more weakness down to 13765 and lower in the next few sessions,” he added.

Corporate earnings: A total of 129 companies including Maruti Suzuki India, Lupin, InterGlobe Aviation, Bharat Electronics Ltd, IDBI Bank, IRCTC, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, RBL Bank, Route Mobile, Shriram Transport Finance, Tata Chemicals, TVS Motor Company and Welspun Corp among others are slated to announce their quarterly earnings today.

FIIs turn net sellers: On Wednesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,688.22 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 3.38 crore in the Indian equity market, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

Fed cites moderating recovery: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in its statement said that the pace of the recovery in economic activity and employment has moderated in recent months, with weakness concentrated in the sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic.

Last day to subscribe to Stove Kraft IPO: The bidding process for Stove Kraft’s initial public offering (IPO) will close today. The issue was subscribed 2.93 times on day two of the bidding process. The IPO received bids for 1.72 crore shares as against the total issue size of 58.94 lakh shares.

Global watch: Mirroring the overnight plunge on Wall Street, Asian stock markets were trading deep in red. Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.25 per cent while the Topix index declined 1 per cent. US stock indices suffered their biggest one-day percentage drop in three months with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 2.05 per cent. The S&P 500 lost 2.57 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.61 per cent.