The Indian benchmark indices, Sensex, Nifty, may open higher on Thursday, tracking firm cues from the Singapore Nifty futures and positive trading across Asian markets. Bullish trends in the SGX Nifty Index Futures for January delivery, were trading at 10,865.00, up by 33.00 or 0.31 per cent, at 11:02 AM, Singapore Time, also indicated a positive start for local bourses.
Shares of public sector banks will remain in focus after the cabinet on Wednesday approved the merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda, to create the third-largest bank after State Bank of India and HDFC Bank. The government expects the new entity will be operational from the beginning of the next financial year. Among others, SBI Life Insurance may also see some movement after it entered into with agreement with Syndicate Bank wherein the state-run lender will be selling its policies.
On Wednesday, Indian equities ended lower for the second straight session of this year hit by losses in auto, metals and banking stocks. The Sensex ended 363 points lower at 35,891, and the Nifty ended 117 points in the red at 10,792, as disappointing December sales numbers led to weakness in the auto stocks which dragged the broader market lower.
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Top traded Volumes on NSE Nifty were YES Bank Ltd. 32583205, State Bank of India 25559853, Vedanta Ltd. 18935386, ICICI Bank Ltd. 18243156, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. 17436694. On NSE, total number of shares traded was 128.80 crore and total turnover stood at Rs 28239.02 crore.
As on January 02, the FIIs stood as net buyer in equity market but turned net seller in debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs 2,193.74 crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs 39 crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs 1,722.12 crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs 601.18 crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 471.62 crore and Rs -562.18 crore.
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On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 3,71,636 with a total turnover of Rs 25,626.53 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 8,09,483 with a total turnover of Rs 48,859.45 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 1,79,22,808 with a total turnover of Rs 10,30,708.01 crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 5,49,802 with a total turnover of Rs 34,357.47 crore.
Global markets
Asian markets rebounded on Thursday after sell-off in the previous session, mirroring positive closing in the US equity market overnight, as weaker-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data coupled with a fall in France's PMI in December sent world shares tumbling. The weak Chinese data indicated that the ongoing trade war between China and the US will affect global economic growth.
In early trading, the Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.50 percent to trade at 2,477.60, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.29 percent at 25,212.11 and Taiwan TSEC 50 Index shed 0.07 percent to 9,547.43. The Nikkei 225 is not trading today for Bank Holiday in Japan.
Wall Street ended the first session of the year tad higher after volatile trading on Wednesday, led by a sharp drop in Apple shares. However, rebound in oil prices helped the market to offset weakness. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 index rose 3.18 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 2,510.03, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 18.78 points, or 0.08 percent, to finish at 23,346.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 30.66 points, or 0.46 percent, to settle at 6,665.9.
Edited by Chitranjan Kumar