Sensex, Nifty Seen Opening Up On Wall Street Cues

Indian shares look set to open higher on Thursday after U.S. shares kicked of their seasonal Santa Claus rally on Tuesday.

Every year, the phenomenon occurs during the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January.

That said, benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty may see range-bound moves following Monday’s rebound from the worst week in 30 months. The impending Nifty 50 expiry may also lead to some intra-day volatility.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the cash market in the previous trade session and offloaded shares worth Rs. 2,454 crores while domestic financial institutions were net buyers to the extent of Rs. 2,819 crores, according to provisional data.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty fluctuated before ending marginally lower on Tuesday ahead of the Christmas holiday.

The rupee hit a new low for the sixth consecutive trade before settling at Rs 85.20 per dollar due to the month-end demand for dollar among importers coupled with the rise in U.S. Treasury yields.

Asian markets were mixed this morning in thin holiday trade. Chinese and Seoul stocks were moving lower while Japan’s Nikkei rose about half a percent as Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda avoided giving a clear signal that he might raise interest rates next month.

Elsewhere, the People’s Bank of China held the interest rate on the one-year medium-term lending facility steady at 2 percent and drained the most cash since 2014 with a one-year policy tool.

Several regional markets remain closed for the Boxing Day holiday.

Wall Street’s main indexes all closed higher in a truncated Christmas Eve session on Tuesday, led by big tech stocks.

The Dow rose 0.9 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.4 percent to score four straight sessions of gains, kicking off the so-called Santa Claus rally.

The S&P 500 added 1.1 percent to extend its winning streak to three sessions.

European stocks eked out modest gains in light pre-holiday trading on Tuesday.

The pan European STOXX 600 edged up by 0.2 percent. France’s CAC 40 added 0.1 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent while markets in Germany and Switzerland were closed for Christmas Eve.