Sensex, Nifty to open in red or will bulls takeover? Key things to know before opening bell

Domestic equity market benchmarks BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 are likely to see a gap-down opening on Wednesday, following global cues. In the previous session, BSE Sensex closed 376 points higher at 40,522 mark while the 50-stock Nifty ended just below the 11,900 mark. Today, the first phase of Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections, rising coronavirus cases, oil prices, July-September quarter earnings, rupee movement and other global cues will set the market direction. Investors will also react to FM Sitharaman’s comment where she said that there were visible signs of revival in the economy but the GDP growth may be in the negative zone or near zero in the current fiscal. “Market is likely to remain in a tight range, taking cues from the ongoing result season, development around US elections and covid cases globally,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

SGX Nifty in red: Trends on SGX Nifty suggested a negative opening for Sensex and Nifty 50 on Wednesday, Nifty futures were trading 40.50 points down at 11,847 on Singaporean Exchange.

Bulk deals: HSBC GIF Asia Ex Japan Equity Smaller Companies sold a total of 12.08 lakh shares in Sandhar Technologies at Rs 236 per share. While BM Traders sold 89,169 shares of Likhitha Infrastructure at Rs 152.40 per share in NSE bulk deals.

Economy reviving, but GDP growth to be negative: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that GDP growth may be in the negative zone or near zero in the current fiscal. Sitharaman added that there were visible signs of economic revival but the full-year GDP growth may suffer due to a huge economic contraction of 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Results today: A total of 70 listed companies including L&T, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Titan Company, Route Mobile, UTI Asset Management Company, ICICI Securities, Max India and MCX, are scheduled to announce their July-September quarter earnings today.

FII and DII data: On Tuesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) lapped up shares worth Rs 3,514.89 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,570.8 crore in the capital market on a net basis, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

Global watch: Asian stock markets fell in early trade on Wednesday with Japan’s Nikkei down 0.32% while the Topix index declined 0.61%. In overnight trade on Wall Street, US stocks closed little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8%, and the S&P 500 lost 0.30%. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.64%.