Market Watch

Market Watch

Dow Jones industrial average gained 2% or 172 points while Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1.3%. But NASDAQ composite lost 0.7%, recovering a little after touching a new bear-market low around 1,533 during the session. Crude oil is currently trading at $68 a barrel and Gold is at $715 an ounce. European stocks closed slightly lower in choppy trade on Thursday as losses in banks and automobiles eclipsed gains in oil and defensive shares. Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index was up 1.2 percent, Germany's DAX was down 1.1 percent and France's CAC 40 was 0.4 percent higher. Asian stocks fell for a third day after Sony Corp. slashed its earnings forecast and South Korea's economic growth weakened, deepening concern a global slowdown is hurting demand for the region's exports. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is sharply down by 4.89%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 3.23% and China’s SSE Composite is in the red by 1.23% in morning trade. Data about existing home sales will arrive from US today. Outcome of the OPEC meeting is also keenly awaited by the markets today.
Asian markets continue to be in the slump with major corporates like Toyoata, Sony and Samsung cut their earning foprecasts significantly. The cut in the profit guidance of big corporates is an indiacator of the recession threat. Eventhough there is the major event of RBI Credit policy today Indian markets are likely to follow the global cues and have an opening with downward gap. Any reduction in benchmark rates more than expectations might act boost the sentiments intraday. We can expect around 750 points intraday volatility today due to a series of events. Nifty will open with a sharp downward gap around the major support level of 2860 and market should hold near to this level at the beginning to avoid further downside. The Critical level for Nifty is 2915 above which the movement can be based on the announcements in RBI credit policy and if there is another Repo rate cut followed by an SLR cut, Nifty can even think of the level of 3020 above which the next target is 3120.
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