SGX Nifty falls over 50 points; five things to know before market opens on Thursday

Nifty futures were trading 56.50 points down at 13,508.5 in early trade on Singaporean Exchange, indicating a gap-down start for BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 on Thursday. In the previous session, Sensex ended at 46,103.50, up 495 points and the Nifty settled 136 points up at 13,529.10. The weekly expiry of F&O contracts is likley to keep the markets volatile today. Newsflow related to COVID-19 vaccine, oil prices, rupee trajectory and other global cues will sway market sentiment. “Small and Microcaps are hugely outperforming the market, and the euphoria is expected to stay in the short to medium-term. Hopes of vaccine and stimulus packages in India and developed nations are raising the spirit of equity market,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial services.

FII and DII data: On Wednesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) lapped up shares worth Rs 3,564.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 2,493.1 crore on a net basis in the Indian equity, according to provisional data available on the NSE.

Call Option data: For the December series, maximum Call Open Interest (OI) is placed at 13,000 strike with 25.15 lakh contracts, followed by 18.76 lakh contracts at 13,500 strike. For the weekly expiry today, maximum Call OI is at 13,600 strike with 35.83 lakh contracts.

Technical take: “Technically, the Nifty has held a level of 13450 which is grossly positive – if the index trades above the same we can expect uptrend continuation wave up to 13600. Further uptrend may continue which could lift the index to 13665. However, on intraday time frame, the index is in an overbought zone and high chances of an immediate correction is not ruled out if index trades below 13450. Hence, dismissal of 13450 could possibly open correction wave up to 13400-13350,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President (Equity Technical Research), Kotak Securities.

Global watch: Asian stock markets were trading lower in early trade on Thursday as investors were eyeing Brexit talks and negotiations on US stimulus package. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.39 per cent while the Topix index dropped 0.18 per cent. In overnight trade on Wall STreet, US stocks ended lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.35 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.79 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.94 per cent.

24 companies contribute over 75% to BSE100 gains: Benchmark indices in recent years have been driven largely by a handful of stocks. More than 75% of the BSE100 performance in FY21 so far has come from 24 stocks. In contrast, the same magnitude of returns were contributed by just five stocks in FY19 and six in FY18.