Markets closed on account of Christmas

Indian equity, forex, money and commodity markets will remain closed today on account of Christmas.

On Thursday, markets ended flat on caution ahead of the December F&O expiry next week. The S&P BSE Sensex ended down 12 points at 25,839 and the Nifty50 ended 5 points lower at 7,861.

Foreign Institutional investors hit the ‘sell’ button ahead of year-end holidays as they were the net sellers by Rs 112.03 crore. 

Meanwhile, crude oil prices came off its multi-year lows after data released overnight showed US crude inventories has dropped unexpectedly previous week.

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), US crude inventories have slipped by 5.88 million barrels to 484.78 million last week as against a forecast of rise by 1.4 million barrels.

Indian Forex and currency markets were closed on Thursday on account of Id-A-Milad.

Among the Asian equities, Japan's Nikkei extended its rally and has gained marginally. Shanghai Composite and SGX Nifty were also trading with 0.1% gains. 

Overnight, the Wall Street retreated from its Santa Claus rally to end marginally lower in a holiday truncated week. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.29% and the S&P 500 slipped 0.16%.

Energy and oil stocks were in focus on Wall Street as crude oil prices came off its multi-year lows with US crude gaining for the fourth straight session on Thursday. 

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 for the week ended Dec.19, not far from levels last seen in late 1973, the Labor Department said on Thursday.