Sensex, Nifty Likely To Have A Weak Opening

Edited by Peter Noronha (with inputs from agencies)

14 Oct 2020, 08:28 AM IST

At 7:30 am, the Nifty futures were trading lower by 0.5 per cent on Singapore Stock Exchange.

The domestic stock markets are likely to open in the red after eight successive days of gains, following negative global cues due to delay in vaccine trials and an elusive stimulus agreement in the USA. Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the index in India, with a loss of 55 points. At 7:30 am, the Nifty futures were trading at 11,886, lower by 55 points or 0.5 per cent on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Asian equities were set to slip on Wednesday as halted COVID-19 vaccine trials and absent U.S. stimulus agreement weighed on investor sentiment, while the dollar rose from Tuesday's three-week low as demand firmed for safe-haven assets.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.03 per cent. Australian S&P/ASX 200 futures were down 0.74 per cent at 22:50 GMT, while Japan's Nikkei 225 futures were up 0.13 per cent.

Wall Street lost ground on Tuesday, with halted COVID-19 vaccine trials and an elusive U.S. stimulus agreement weighing on sentiment as third quarter earnings season got underway. While all three major stock indexes closed in the red, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com helped the mitigate the tech-heavy Nasdaq's loss.

The Dow Jones fell 0.55 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.64 per cent and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, Wipro shares are likely to be in the news after the Bengaluru-based IT major, post market hours on Tuesday, announced a share buyback plan worth Rs 9,500 crore and a 3.2 per cent sequential jump in net profit at Rs 2,466 crore for the July-September period.

On the corporate earnings front, Infosys, Aditya Birla Money and Tata Elxsi will announce their numbers for the quarter ended September 2,020 during the day.

Meanwhile, oil prices were steady on Wednesday on concerns that fuel demand will continue to falter as rising coronavirus cases across Europe and in the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, could impede economic growth.

Brent crude futures for December fell by 8 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $42.37 a barrel by 0142 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 9 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $40.11.

On Tuesday, the Sensex had ended 31.71 points - or 0.08 per cent - higher at 40,625.51, and the Nifty had settled at 11,934.50, up 3.55 points from its previous close.