Investor concerns regarding the spread of coronavirus outside China and its impact on the global economy will continue to be the leading factor for the markets. The number of new coronavirus infections inside China was for the first time overtaken by fresh cases elsewhere on Wednesday. Asia reported hundreds of new cases, Brazil confirmed Latin America’s first infection and the new disease was also detected for the first time in Pakistan, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Romania, and Algeria.
Adding to the cautious mood on the Dalal Street will be the expiry of the February series derivative contracts today and the release of the Q3 GDP data tomorrow.
Market participants will also track stock-specific movement, the Rupee's trajectory, and the oil price movement. In overnight trade, oil prices dropped to their lowest level in over a year with Brent slipping more than 2 per cent to $53.41 a barrel.
In company-specific news, Vodafone Idea has written to the Department of Telecommunications, seeking the adjustment of GST refund to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore against its dues linked to AGR.
Meanwhile, the sell-off in global equity markets continued. In the US, the Wall Street reversed earlier gains on Wednesday to end lower for the fifth straight session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 124 points, the S&P 500 dropped 12 points, while the Nasdaq Composite added 15 points.
Asian share markets slipped on Thursday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded either side of flat. Australia's ASX 200 was 0.5 per cent lower and Japan's Nikkei fell 1.4 per cent. The SGX Nifty also indicated a negative start to the day for Sensex and Nifty.
Back home, the S&P BSE Sensex ended Wednesday's session 392 points lower at 39,889 and the Nifty50 index slipped 119 points to 11,678. According to experts, a breach below 11,600 will add to further pressure on the downside, however, if markets were to hold on to the support zone of 11,600 a bounce back is likely. Immediate resistance on the upside is near 11,800 zone.
Read by: Kanishka Gupta
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