Markets to open in red amid weak global cues

Indian markets ended lower on Thursday, snapping 8 sessions of gains after a slew of announcements by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to boost the economy failed to impress the Street. Losses in the benchmarks were led by banks and financials. Today, the last day of the Samvat 2076 is likely to see markets opening lower amid weak global cues. Weak macro-economic data may also dampen sentiments in domestic markets. Retail inflation soared to a 77-month high in October led by a surge in food prices. The inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 4.62 percent for the same period a year ago. India's index of industrial output for the month of September was at 0.2 percent versus -8 percent in August, as per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data released by the government on November 12. Also, there will be some cautiousness with report that India has reported 43,861 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The total caseload now stands at 8,727,900. The country's death toll has mounted to 128,686. However, traders may be taking encouragement later in the day as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced 12 fresh stimulus measures under the Atmanirbhar 3.0 stimulus package, amounting to Rs 2.65 lakh crore. The fresh stimulus package, which has been in the works for more than three months, focused on helping stressed sectors, middle income groups, MSMEs and more. Some support may also come as the Reserve Bank of India said it will conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMO) for an aggregate amount of Rs 10,000 crore each on November 19. The decision was taken after a review of the current liquidity and financial conditions.  There will be some reaction in fertilizer industry stocks after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 65,000-crore fertilizer subsidy for farmers as part of her stimulus package to boost the economy.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday amid a pickup in Covid-19 hospitalizations and renewed talks of lockdowns and restrictions to curb the virus’s spread. Asian markets are trading in red on Friday following on from selloffs in the United States and Europe as investors feared the economic impact of an accelerating rise in coronavirus infections.

Back home, after rallying for eight sessions in a row, Indian equity benchmarks took a breather on Thursday as it ended around half percent lower, as investors' booked profits in banking, financial services, utilities and energy stocks amid lackluster global cues. Markets made negative start and stayed in red for whole day, as traders were concerned with the RBI’s statement that the GDP is likely to contract by 8.6 percent for the July-September period, which means India will enter into a recession for the first time in history in the first half of this fiscal with two successive quarters of negative growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some concerns also came with rating agency ICRA’s report that the aggregate debt of 12 major states is estimated to worsen significantly, and their capital spending might decline sharply because of lower-than-expected goods and services tax (GST) revenue and shortfall in Centre’s devolution. It added that this could lead to a 1-2 per cent contraction in Q4FY21. Weak trade continued over the Dalal Street in second half of the session, as traders remained on sidelines ahead of the macro economic data -- industrial production and inflation data -- scheduled to be announced later in the day. Sentiments remained down-beat even after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced 12 measures under 'AtmanirbharBharat 3.0' to revive the economy. She also said Indian economy is seeing a ‘strong recovery’ taking root in the economy, as seen by increased goods and service tax collections and other metrics. The new announcements comes a day after the government approved a Rs 1.45-trillion package by extending the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to 10 more sectors. The latest approval is in addition to the already announced Rs 51,311-crore PLI for three sectors. With this, the total incentives under the PLI schemes come to Rs 2 trillion. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 236.48 points or 0.54% to 43,357.19, while the CNX Nifty was down by 58.35 points or 0.46% to 12,690.80.