Sensex, Nifty Likely To Have A Gap-Up Opening

The domestic stock markets are likely to have a gap-up opening, post a 2-day decline, due to strong global cues. Wall Street rallied over the weekend, Asian markets are firm in early trading and trends on SGX Nifty indicate a gap-up opening for the index in India, with a 142-points gain. At 7:30 am, the Nifty futures were trading at 15,096, higher by 142 points or 1.3 per cent, on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Asian shares rallied on Monday while the dollar held near three-month peaks after the U.S. Senate’s passage of a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and a surprisingly strong payrolls report augured well for a global economic rebound.

The prospect of faster growth helped MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firm 0.4 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.2 per cent, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%, after a sharp turnaround on Friday.

Wall Street, and a gauge of global equity markets, on Friday recovered from earlier losses as investors took stock of a report that showed faster-than-expected U.S. jobs growth but which had previously stoked inflation concerns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 446.98 points, or 1.45 per cent, to 31,371.12, the S&P 500 gained 59.5 points, or 1.58 per cent, to 3,827.97 and the Nasdaq Composite added 147.19 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 12,870.66.

Meanwhile, oil prices jumped more than $1 a barrel on Friday, hitting their highest levels in nearly 14 months, after OPEC and its allies agreed not to increase supply in April as they await a more substantial recovery in demand amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Brent crude futures for May rose to as high as $68 a barrel on Friday, a level not seen since Jan. 8, 2020. The contract was up $1.09, or 1.6 per cent, to $67.83 a barrel at 0730 GMT, and was on track for a near 3 per cent gain in the week.

On Friday, the BSE Sensex had shed 440.76 points at 50,405.32 and Nifty had declined 142.70 points to 14,938.10.