Markets are likely to remain volatile on Thursday, while trends in SGX Nifty suggest a flat opening for Indian benchmark equity indices. Traders are likely to be cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy review on Friday. The central bank is likely to keep interest rates unchanged but its commentary on inflation will be keenly watched out by markets.
On Wednesday, the BSE Sensex ended at 44,618.04, down 37.40 points or 0.08%. The Nifty was at 13,113.75, up 4.70 points or 0.04%.
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Asian shares were mixed on Thursday after a choppy day of Wall Street trade, due to a disappointing US jobs report, while the greenback languished near 2.5 year lows on growing optimism of a coronavirus vaccine.
Britain became the first Western country to approve a covid-19 vaccine, with 800,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine available for those at high risk starting next week.
The US Food and Drug Administration is holding its advisory committee meeting next week, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said the state’s first delivery, enough for 170,000 residents, is expected on 15 December.
Hopes that the pandemic, which has so far killed nearly 1.5 million globally, will finally be brought to its knees sparked a risk-on rally in currency markets with Australian and New Zealand dollars advancing against their US counterpart.
Hopes of a fiscal support package in the United States also boosted investor optimism but share traders were less enthused.
Worries that the US economy may be decelerating weighed on shares after US private payrolls showed fewer jobs than expected were added in November as growing new covid-19 infections led to additional business restrictions.
The markets regulator has questioned BSE’s alacrity in clearing the share capital reorganization of Future Group firms, as part of a $3.5 billion acquisition by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), despite four unresolved complaints against the deal, including one by Amazon.com Inc.
Reliance Capital Ltd (RCap) has received preliminary bids from private equity firms, including Blackstone, Bain Capital and Oaktree, for the businesses it has put up for sale, according to a Mint report.
Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, promoter of Tata Chemicals bought 1.81 million shares or 0.71% for ₹76 crore in an open market transaction on Wednesday. According to the bulk deal data on NSE, Tata Sons acquired 18,07,245 shares of Tata Chemicals for ₹420.92 apiece totalling to ₹76.07 crore.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday informed that its wholly owned subsidiary Nettle Infrastructure Investments Limited has bought 4.94% additional stake in Bharti Infratel for ₹2,882.32 crore via block deals.
In commodities, oil prices slipped on Thursday after rising overnight on covid-19 vaccine hopes and expectations producing countries would keep limits on their output.
Brent crude was down 13 cents at $48.11 a barrel while U.S. light crude eased 15 cents to $45.13. Gold was slightly weaker at $1,827 an ounce.
(Reuters contributed to the story)
