Summary: A weaker rupee, soaring crude oil prices and Q4 earnings will affect the market sentiment on Friday ahead of a long weekend. About 18 companies will declare their March quarter numbers for the year 2018-19, including YES Bank, HDFC Asset Management Company, HDFC Life Insurance, Hero MotoCorp, and Piramal Enterprises. Markets remained flat for the most part of Thursday’s trading session but witnessed heavy sell-off during the last trading hour. Benchmark indices, S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 tanked 324 points and 84 points, respectively. While the Sensex settled at 38,731 level, Nifty managed to hold above the psychological level of 11,600 to end at 11,642. Markets will remain shut on Monday on account of Phase 4 of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where Mumbai goes to vote. In the forex market, the rupee slipped 39 paise to close at 70.2 per dollar. GLOBAL CUES Oil prices, which touched $75 per barrel in the intra-day trade on Thursday, dipped in the early trade on Friday on the expectation of higher supply by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) countries to offset curb on Iran export. Brent crude futures were at $74.00 per barrel at 6:45 am, or 0.4 per cent, from their last close. Asian shares got off to a subdued start ahead of the release of US’ GDP numbers, due later in the day. Moreover, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) held its monetary policy steady at a rate review on Thursday and said its super-low rates will last another year. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1 per cent. In the overnight trade, US stocks ended mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 135 points to close at 26,462, while the S&P500 slipped 1 point to end at 2,926 level. Nasdaq gained 17 points to settle at 8,119 level.
