The Indian stock market is likely to open lower on Friday, ahead of Bihar election results today. The trends on Gift Nifty also indicate a negative start for the Indian benchmark index. The Gift Nifty was trading around 25,844 level, a discount of nearly 110 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close. On Thursday, the Indian stock market ended flat amid profit booking at higher levels.The Sensex rose 12.16 points, or 0.01%, to close at 84,478.67, while the Nifty 50 settled 3.35 points, or 0.01%, higher at 25,879.15.
Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services also reiterated that “multiple factors at play for markets. The exit polls have indicated strength for key NDA memebers. This is no doubt welcome news as it shows political stability and status quo. However, the bigger triggers are potential progress on India-US trade talks and the earning. Commentary suggests Q3 demand will improve, and the market is expecting a rate cut.”The GIFT Nifty has been trending lower in sync with the global cues. Overnight, Wall Street tumbled to the lowest levels in 1 month. It indicates that the Nifty may continue to trade below the 25,900 levels. However, the trend will be clear at 9:15 am when the market opens.
Market veteran Ajay Bagga pointed out that “state elections don’t have a long-lasting impact on markets. However, given the central government’s dependence on the JD(U) , with its 12 MPs and the fear that the opposition could offer the PM seat to Chandra Babu Naidu’s TDP (16 MPs) to break the ruling NDA majority at the centre, there was some amount of trepidation around the Bihar poll outcome. Even though Exit polls cannot capture closely fought seats accurately , markets have put their faith in the Exit polls for now.”