Muted start likely despite positive cues from Asian peers

Going by the early cues from SGX Nifty, Dalal Street seems to be headed for a muted opening, after which a range-bound action is expected in the initial part of the session. However, as the day moves forward, the markets are likely to trade volatile as June F&O contracts expire today. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading down by 12 points at the 11,857 level.

The markets in Asia are mostly trading in the green on Thursday, despite a mixed close on the Wall Street as the market participants waited for some concrete development between the US and China trade talks. The Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 was up by 0.59 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 0.46 per cent and the Kospi has surged 0.49 per cent.   

Back home, despite some weakness in the initial part of the day, markets clawed back into the positive terrain and the bulls continued to inch higher throughout the day. In the end, Nifty gained 0.43 per cent to close at 11,848 and the BSE Sensex rose 0.40 per cent to finish at 39,592. The broader markets outperformed the frontline gauges, with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap registering healthy gains of 0.98 per cent and 0.75 per cent, respectively. Talking about sectoral performance, barring Nifty IT and FMCG, all other sectoral indices ended with gains, with the Nifty Metal and Nifty PSU Bank being the top gainers.  

The US stocks got off to an impressive start on the back of comments from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that ‘we were about 90 per cent of the way there and I think there’s a path to complete this’. Mnuchin believes a trade deal between the US and China might be reached at the G20 summit. However, as the day progressed, the early optimism appeared to have faded away as the stocks ended the day on a mixed note. The tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.3 per cent, while the Dow and the S&P 500 ended with modest losses.

The European markets finished mostly lower on Wednesday. A majority of the European indices ended Tuesday’s session with modest losses. France’s CAC 40 index and UK’s FTSE 100 slipped by 0.25 per cent and 0.08 per cent, respectively, while Germany’s DAX added 0.14 per cent.