Subdued start likely following negative cues from Asian peers

The outlook for the day is a soft start as cues from Asian peers are not helpful. At the time of writing, the SGX Nifty was trading down by 12 points at 11,574 levels. DCB Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC AMC and MCX results will be in focus today.

A majority of the stocks in Asia were trading in the red on Tuesday morning. The Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 which resumed trading after a holiday on Monday, shed 0.78 per cent, China’s Shanghai Composite index had lost 0.20 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down by 0.18 per cent.

Back home, markets started trading for the week on a positive note, courtesy IT bellwether Infosys. Over the weekend, Infosys declared its quarterly earnings and market participants gave a thumbs up to its better-than-expected numbers. However, the selling pressure in the banking space gradually pushed the indices lower; but a rebound in the latter half of the trading session helped the indices to settle with modest gains. In the end, Nifty closed a tad below 11,600 mark, up by 0.31 per cent and BSE Sensex settled at 38,897, up by 0.41 per cent. The broader indices underperformed the frontline gauges with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap losing 0.80 per cent and 0.71 per cent, respectively. A majority of the sectors ended in the red, with Nifty PSU Bank being top losers, while, Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma emerging top gainers.

The US stocks registered modest gains on Monday and the major indices ended the session at new record closing highs. The Dow added 27 points, the S&P 500 almost closed unchanged and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 14 points.

The European indices ended Monday’s session in the green. Germany’s DAX surged 0.52 per cent, France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.1 per cent and UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.34 per cent.