Markets may open weak; await RBI policy decision

Indian markets are likely to start the crucial day with negative bias on the back of weak global cues. All eyes will be on RBI’s policy decision to be announced later in the day, which will decide the further course of action for the markets. The SGX Nifty is trading lower by 18 points indicating that the Nifty could open at 10,125 at the opening bell.  

Asian markets fell in early trade on Wednesday, following negative close in overnight trade on Wall Street.  Japan’s Nikkei 225 has plunged 215 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has edged down 114 points and China’s Shanghai Composite has slipped 12 points. 

Back home, equity benchmark indices opened lower and witnessed sell-off in the initial hour of trading. However, indices pared most of the losses in the mid-session trade, but they could not hold on to their gains, which resulted in flat closing with a negative bias. The broader indices had mixed performance as the Nifty Mid-Cap index added 0.03%, whereas the Nifty Small-Cap index dipped 0.25%. Sector-wise, Nifty IT continued to provide support to the market and emerged as the top gainer in sectoral indices. At the end of the day, Nifty ended the session lower by 0.09% at 10,118 and BSE Sensex closed at 32,802, down by 0.20%.  

In the US, all the three indices closed Tuesday’s session in the negative territory. On the economic front, the Commerce Department released a report which stated that the trade deficit widened more than expected in the month of October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 109 points to close at 24,181, Nasdaq lost 13 points to finish at 6,762 and the S&P 500 declined 10 points to end at 2,630.    

The European markets witnessed lacklustre performance on Tuesday and ended the day below the neutral line. The DAX of Germany dipped 0.08%, CAC 40 of France shed 0.26% and the FTSE 100 of UK slipped 0.16%.