Markets to make a soft start of the new week

The Indian markets slid in late hours of last session, with benchmarks losing well over a percent for the day, not only the bluechips but the broader markets too went through sharp selling. Today, the start is likely to be in red and markets extending their slump will fell further on weak global cues. The market sentiments will be completely driven by the global sentiments given the volatile moves on Chinese markets. Traders will also be eyeing the movement of rupee after its sharp fall in last session, meanwhile, industry body Assocham has said that the slide of the rupee was a good sign for India and the country must allow the currency to depreciate to help exports remain competitive. The power sector stocks will be in action as part of its policy for the development of coal gasification, the government has set up an inter-ministerial panel for identifying coal and lignite mines to be put up for auction or allotment. The development of underground coal gasification (UCG) is envisaged to provide energy security.

The US markets suffered sharp sell-off in last session on plunge in crude and as sales at US retailers fell slightly in December. The government’s producer price index, which includes wholesale costs, dropped 0.2% last month. The Asian markets have made a weak start amid increased risk aversion on weak US economic data, the slowdown in China and the fall in crude oil prices.

The bloodbath in Indian stock markets prolonged for yet another session as the benchmarks continued to sway to the tune of depressing global developments and deposed another over a percentage point on the last trading session of the week. Investors squared off position in the dying hours of trade as sentiments turned pessimistic on concerns over bearish global markets, coupled with disappointing macro-data and caution over the third quarter results. Sentiments remained subdued on report that United Nations has downgraded its GDP growth forecast for India for 2016 to 7.5 per cent from 8.2 per cent estimated earlier, largely due to slow progress in implementing reform policies. Furthermore, SEBI Chairman UK Sinha said the Chinese slowdown concerns have posed a new challenge for India and raised uncertainty over the country's growth. The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, suffered a nasty ninety nine point laceration to settle below the crucial 7,450 support level while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index Sensex got obliterated by over three hundred points and closed just above the psychological 24,450 mark. Moreover, the broader markets too failed to show any kind of fervor and settled with large cut of over two percent. Investors failed to draw any sense of relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India has emerged among the few large economies in the world with a promising economic outlook. He also added that Economic growth is moving in the right direction and its pace is expected to gather momentum in the coming quarters, once the impact of the on-going economic and structural reforms takes the firm root.  Earlier on the Dalal Street, the bourses commenced the day in positive territory as optimistic global cues supported investor sentiments. However, the frontline indices could not capitalize on to the early gains and drifted into the red in very early trade. Thereafter, the indices remained choppy through the session, but the sell-off in the dying hour of trade led the indices to lowest part of the session. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 317.93 points or 1.28% to 24455.04, while the CNX Nifty lost 99 points or 1.31% to 7,437.80.