Markets may open flat; BOJ's policy to create ripples

Indian market on December 19 commenced the fresh week on a dismal note as the benchmark indices prolonged with the previous week’s sell-off and descended by close to half a percentage points during the session. Apart from continuous outflows by foreign funds, a frail trend in Asian markets and alarms of an expected jump in US interest rates next year also weighed on the sentiment. Foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 19,500 crore from the capital market this month so far. The FPI outflows took place following a withdrawal of over Rs 49,700 crore on a net basis from the capital market (equity and debt) in the last two months (October-November). To conclude, the NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index - Nifty settled with modest losses of 14 points, while the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index - Sensex shed 30 points and closed below the psychological 26500 mark.

European markets finished in the mix on Monday. The DAX gained 0.20 per cent and the FTSE 100 rose 0.08 per cent. The CAC 40 lost 0.22 per cent.

The U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday with Dow Jones Industrial Average failing to reach the elusive 20,000 mark as investors hold back from big bets in the preholiday week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.65 points to finish at 19,883.06, led higher by shares of Microsoft Corp and United Technologies Corp. The S&P 500 index closed up 4.46 points at 2,262.53, with the telecom and real estate sectors being the strongest performers. The Nasdaq Composite index finished up 20.28 points at 5,457.44.

Asian stocks are cautious on Tuesday morning ahead of Bank of Japan’s monetary policy review. The Shanghai Composite is trading with losses of 0.46 per cent, while Nikkei 225 is trading with losses of 0.05 per cent. Hang Seng is trading flat with positive bias at 21,851.53.

At 7:58 am, SGX Nifty index showed slight changes at 8,126, indicating a flat start for Indian markets.