Stock Market Today: Sensex slips nearly 250 points in early deals, Nifty near 17,250-mark on global cues

At 9:36 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 245.94 points (0.42 per cent) at 57,976.16 and the Nifty 50 was trading at 17,258.20, down 73.60 points (0.42 per cent).

On the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank and ITC were the top laggards.

Commenting on the market outlook, V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said, “An important data which can influence markets globally is the US jobs data expected tonight. Paradoxically, good jobs numbers will be negative for markets since the Fed will have to continue with its hawkish stance if the economy continues to be strong. On the other hand if the jobs data is weak the Fed might infer that the economy is slowing down and, therefore, may go slow on tightening. This would be good for equity markets. So, investors may wait and watch these developments. The fact that FIIs have stopped selling and have turned buyers, though in small quantities, is positive for markets. For FIIs now stocks are available only at high prices. So they will be careful while selling.”

He further noted that financials, autos and capital goods are likely to do well even in a weak market. IT Q2 results may surprise on the upside.

Global Markets (from AP)

Asian shares followed Wall Street lower Friday ahead of US jobs data investors hope will persuade the Federal Reserve to ease off plans for more interest rate hikes. Tokyo and Hong Kong, the region’s biggest markets, retreated. Chinese markets were closed for a holiday. Oil prices were little-changed.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index fell 1 per cent on Thursday after a private sector report said US employers hired slightly more workers than forecast in September. That gives ammunition to Fed officials who say more rate hikes are needed to cool the economy and rein in inflation that is at a four-decade high.

Investors were watching for Friday’s release of US government data that are expected to show fewer people were hired compared with previous months. They hope that will help persuade the Fed five rate hikes this year are working and it can scale down plans for more.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.6 per cent to 27,149.75 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1 per cent to 17,823.29. The Kospi in Seoul gained 0.2 per cent to 2,241.87 while Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 shed 0.6 per cent to 6,777.00. New Zealand lost 0.2 per cent while Singapore and Bangkok advanced.