Markets likely to open on a positive note

Welcome to the last trading session of the week! Today, SGX Nifty is flashing green as Asian peers are trading with healthy gains and overnight, the Wall Street ended on a positive note. Currently, SGX Nifty is trading up by 133 points at 8,796 level.

Major Asian indices notched up gains on Friday, taking leads from the stronger overnight close on the Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has rallied 1.15 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 048 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 0.53 per cent.  

Back home, the markets continued their upward momentum for the third consecutive session on the expiry day on Thursday. However, in the second half of the session, index was trading with a high volatility in a broad range. At the end, BSE Sensex settled at 29,946.77, with a gain of 1,410.99 points and Nifty closed above 8,600 mark, with gain of 323.60 points. In the broader market, Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap rose 3.11 and 3.17 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, all the indices ended in green. Nifty Bank, Nifty Realty and Nifty Financial services led from the front and emerged as the top gainers. India VIX has dropped by 7.86 per cent.

On Thursday, US markets finished higher despite report from the labour department that showed that unemployment claims soared to record 3.28 million last week, as COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses across the country. The investors took some comfort from the news that the Senate finally voted to approve a $2 trillion stimulus package in response to Coronavirus pandemic. Dow Jones has marked its first three days of successive gains since February 6. At the end of the day, Dow jumped 6.38 per cent, Nasdaq advanced 5.60 per cent and S&P 500 soared 6.24 per cent. 

European markets on Thursday edged higher after a weak start. CAC 40 of France rose 2.51 per cent while, Germany’s DAX added 1.28 per cent. FTSE 100 of UK gained 2.24 per cent.