GIFT NIFTY indicates gap up opening for Indian markets; Asian stocks rebound

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to stage a gap up opening on Friday, October 16, as indicated by NIFTY futures traded at GIFT City in Gandhinagar. GIFT NIFTY futures advanced 104 points to 23,090 amid positive cues from global markets.

The Indian equity benchmarks ended sharply higher on Thursday as a combination of factors lifted investor sentiment towards equities.

Sentiment turned positive after Jio Platforms announced dates for the country's biggest share sale via initial public offering (IPO), drop in crude prices and contra AI trade, that is a decline in tech shares in South Korea and buying in Indian IT companies also added to the positive sentiment on the street, analysts noted.

The SENSEX ended 2.11% or 1,534 points higher at 74,316 and NIFTY50 index surged 375 points or 1.66% to close at 22,997.

Asian markets rebounded after two days of losses as tech selloff eased owing to value buying at lower levels and easing crude prices in global markets.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.77%, China's Shanghai Composite index 0.61%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.65% and South Korea's KOSPI climbed 3%.

Overnight, US stocks snapped their three-day losing streak as investors sifted their focus from AI stocks to Eli Lilly, UnitedHealth and other healthcare and consumer stocks.

The S&P 500 index advanced 0.33%, Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.08% and tech heavy Nasdaq index 0.08%.

Back home, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth ₹5,285.37 crore on Thursday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹3,319 crore.

Markets regulator SEBI on Thursday revised the framework for the Closing Auction Session (CAS), changing trading timings, and the methodology for determining settlement prices of stock and index derivatives contracts.

Under the revised framework, the 10-minute closing auction session will operate from 3:30 pm to 3:40 pm on all trading days, while trading in index and stock derivatives will continue until 3:45 pm, with certain exceptions for expiring index derivatives contracts, Sebi said in its circular.

Further, a key change pertains to the settlement of expiring derivatives contracts, which will now be based on a Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) methodology using the last 30 minutes of continuous trading.