Markets may witness positive start on strong global cues

Today, the Indian markets are likely to open on a positive and stable note followed by robust closure in the US markets amid strong jobs data. The SGX Nifty, which has surged 118 points at 10331.50 at 7.15 hours IST, is indicating that the Nifty is likely to have positive opening in the Indian markets.  

Majority of the Asian benchmarks look positive at the beginning of the week, tracking strong cues on US jobs data. Metal sector too is off its previous losses and is trading higher. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 is up 2.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng too is up 1.5 per cent and Shanghai Composite is marginally up with gains of 0.3 per cent at 7.04 hours IST.  

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks retreated yet again on Friday after a day’s breather. Foreign investors pulled out nearly Rs 6,000 crore from Indian markets in just 6 trading sessions amid better opportunities in other emerging markets. After a positive start, markets turned around in the second half of the session to close lower. Nifty and Sensex closed down by nearly 16 and 44 points at 10,227 and 33,307, respectively, from the previous close. Broader markets slightly underperformed with marginal losses of 0.3 per cent. Among the sectoral indices, PSU banks and metal led the retreat, registering 1.8 per cent losses while media, FMCG and IT remained marginally positive.

The US stock markets ended Friday’s session on a positive note, with Nasdaq hitting record highs, notching up gains of 1.8 per cent. The optimism was on account of the release of February jobs data which came in better than expected, with the economy adding 313,000 jobs in February as against the expected 200,000 jobs. However, wages grew less than expected at 2.6 per cent on an annualised basis. Dow Jones surged 440 points to close at 25335.74 and S&P 500 rose 1.7 per cent to end the day at 2786.57. 

The European stock markets too jumped on the positive US jobs data. However, Germany's DAX retreated and closed flat to negative on the release of export and factory output data that cued slower economic activity at the beginning of 2018 itself. The DAX was down 0.07 per cent, CAC 40 of France closed higher by 0.4 per cent and the FTSE 100 of the UK finished up by 0.3 per cent.