A weak opening on the cards

The Indian benchmark indices on Tuesday started the session with positive bias and thereafter traded in a narrow range till afternoon. It later slipped into minor intra-day decline and finished a shade lower. The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty fell 4 points to settle at 9653.50, while the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, or Sensex slipped about 14 points to settle at 31,298.

The European markets got off to a positive start on Tuesday, but ended lower as early gains were eroded. The DAX of Germany dropped 0.58 per cent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.32 per cent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. declined 0.68 per cent.

The US stocks finished lower on Tuesday as investors dumped energy shares amid sharp drop in crude oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 62 points at 21,467. The S&P 500 dropped 16 points to finish at 2,437. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index slid 51 points to 6,188.
 
Most of the Asian shares slipped lower in early trade on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has slipped 46 points; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has dropped 35 points, while China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 28 points.
 
At 8:12 am, SGX Nifty index trading with losses of 28 points at 9,646, indicating a negative start for Indian markets.