Selling pressure may continue

Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could slump 124 points at the opening bell, tracking weak Asian cues.

Overseas, Asia markets were trading lower on Thursday following a muted performance on Wall Street overnight. China's markets are closed for the Golden Week holidays.

In US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday finished at a record for the 15th time this year as investors were cheered by healthy economic data. But the market pared earlier gains, with major indexes closing off intraday highs as bond yields jumped, which could dampen appetite for stocks.

Private-sector employment soared in September, as employers added 230,000 jobs, according to Automatic Data Processing Inc. Separately, the final reading on the services sector from IHS Markit fell to 53.5 in September from 54.8, while the Institute for Supply Management's reading on the non-manufacturing sector came in at 61.6.

Wall Street got an early lift after a report in Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera that the government may yield ground in a budget standoff with the EU, which could lessen the odds of a clash between the country and the bloc.

According to the report, Italy's budget deficit target will be set at 2.4% of GDP in 2019, but decline to 2.2% in 2020 and 2.0% in 2021. Italian officials had previously clashed with Brussels over the budget deficit target, which exceeded EU rules and stoked fears of another crisis in the region. A resolution in Italy would mean one less potential risk to watch out for.

Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1550.04 crore on 3 October 2018, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1402.47 crore on 3 October 2018, as per provisional data.

Key benchmark indices suffered severe losses on 3 October 2018, amid a broad-based sell-off in index pivotals. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, lost 550.51 points or 1.51% to settle at 35,975.63. The Nifty 50 index lost 150.05 points or 1.36% to settle at 10,858.25. The Nifty settled below the psychological 11,000 mark.

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