By Aditya Raghunath
Inveting.com -- After the 3.53% fall in Nifty and 3.44% in the BSE Sensex yesterday, early indicators are that markets might open flat to higher today.
Economic data that emerged after market hours yesterday wasn’t very encouraging, especially in an economy that continues to take hits from the second wave of COVID-19 but global cues indicate a respite today.
- IIP down, inflation up IIP (Index of Industrial) numbers for February were down 3.6% on the back of poor manufacturing output and mining data. However, CPI (Consumer Price Inflation) was up to 5.52% in March compared to 5.03% in February. Combined food price inflation rose to 4.94% in March from 3.87% in February.
- COVID cases: April 12 saw India record 1.68 lakh COVID-19 cases. While Maharashtra still has the maximum number of cases, states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand are also recording huge numbers.
- FII selling and weak rupee: FIIs (foreign institutional investors) net sold equities worth Rs 1,746.43 crore yesterday and have been net sellers to the tune of Rs 3.283.16 crore so far in April. If this continues, Indian markets will fall further. The rupee is trading at Rs 75.05, a nine-month low.
That said, Asian markets are trading higher today with Nikkei 225, KOSPI 50 and Shanghai Composite up 1.05%, 1.01%, and 0.16% respectively. Nifty 50 Futures are trading higher 0.24% as of this report.