Twisting Thursday

What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate. - Donald Trump.

Survivors are winners in such kind of markets. There are no real surprises in the US Federal Reserve’s much-hyped ‘Operation Twist’. The FOMC has unveiled a $400bn debt-swap program to shake the US economy out of its deep slumber. The Fed has also warned of significant downside risk to US growth from the turmoil in the eurozone.



US stocks slumped while gold and crude fell. Treasury yields slid to new lows. European markets too slipped as Greece struggles to get green light for second rescue. Asian indices have also taken a hit on the chin. But, the Chinese market is showing some signs of resilience. It had rallied 2% on Wednesday.

On the domestic front, there is yet another twist in the 2G scam with reports suggesting differences in the Congress top brass. Advance tax numbers are soft to say the least even as banks’ non-food credit growth remains solid. Data on new GSM subscriber additions and property deals in Mumbai are both disappointing.

We see a weak start in our markets in sync with the bearish trend across global markets. Any close below 5060 on the Nifty could confirm breakdown of current bullish pattern. Although we have recovered from recent lows, the undertone continues to be fragile thanks to a spate of domestic-cum-global worries.

Sales of existing US homes hit a five-month high in August. The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales rose 7.7% in August to an annual rate of 5.03 million homes. Economists were expecting a rise of only 0.6%.

Meanwhile, Moody's Investors Services has announced the downgrade of Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America - three of the United States' top banks.

Standard & Poor’s has downgraded ratings of several Italian banks.

Greece has reported additional budget cuts, which if found acceptable by the ECB, will help the debt-stricken eurozone nation obtain the badly needed second tranche of the international financial aid.

New Zealand’s economy almost stalled last quarter, sending the local currency to a four-month low.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 2.43bn in the cash segment on Wednesday, according to the provisional NSE data. The domestic institutional institutions (DIIs) were net sellers at Rs 154.8mn on the same day.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 6.03bn (provisional) in the F&O segment.

The foreign funds were net buyers of Rs 3.78bn in the cash segment on Tuesday, as per SEBI data.