FIRST TRADE: Indices open lower; Nifty down at 24,416, Sensex down 140 points

Indian equities started Thursday's session lower with after the historic Donald Trump win even as the Wall Street marked record highs in the overnight session. At the open, Sensex was down 0.17 per cent or 140.44 points at 80,237.69, while the Nifty was down 0.28 per cent or 68.2 points at 24,415.85. This suggests cautiousness as FIIs continue to offload their holdings in the Indian equities. 

Sectorally, barring the IT and media indices, all the other 11 major indices traded in the red after the previous day's across-the-board gains. Metal and financial services stock, however, led the losses with up to 1 per cent cut.

From the Nifty pack top gainers included stocks like Apollo Hospitals, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Coal India and TCS, while laggards included stocks such as Hindalco, Power Grid, Adani Enterprises, Bharat Electronics and Bajaj Finserv.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "The Trump victory is turning out to be more potentially transformative than thought earlier. With the Congress and the Senate coming under Republican control and President Trump exercising power without bothering about another term in office, hugely transformational decisions are possible in the months following Trump’s assumption of office. These decisions may turn out to be both good and bad."

His pro- business initiative of ‘America First’ can strengthen the American economy. But if he walks his talk and imposes a 60% tariff on Chinese imports and 10 to 20% tariff on imports from other countries, that would trigger inflation and jeopardise the Fed’s policy of containing inflation, necessitating a rethink of the Fed’s present policy of rate cut. This has the potential to negatively impact global stock markets, he added.

Asian markets

Asian markets traded mixed with Japan's Nikkei losing, while the Singapore's Straits Times and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up up to 2 per cent as the focus shifted to the US FOMC meeting and more stimulus measures from China.