Indices set for soft start today!

Indian equity markets are likely to open on a soft note as the extension of the lockdown till May 31 and a sharp surge in COVID-19 cases in the last few days had dampened the sentiments. However, we could witness a stock-specific action in today's session as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s fifth and final tranche of Rs 20 lakh crore special economic packages focussed on the consolidation of PSUs and an additional allocation of Rs 40,000 crore under MNREGA scheme could boost selective stocks. Also, Reliance Industries would be in focus in today’s session as General Atlantic is set to invest Rs 6,598.38 crore in Jio Platform and this is fourth such stake sale in the last four weeks.

At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was down by 15 points and trading at 9,092.50 levels. For Nifty, the level of 9,000 is a crucial level to watch out as maximum OI stands at 9,000 PE and in Friday’s session, we saw good OI addition at 9,000 PE strike.  

On the earnings front, a total of 14 corporate are scheduled to report their earnings, which includes prominent names such as Bharti Airtel.  

Asian markets were trading in green on Monday, following positive cues from Wall Street Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up by 0.70 per cent and it has shrugged off a poor economic data as the GDP contracted an annualised 3.4 per cent in the first quarter due to the global Coronavirus pandemic. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.45 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 0.50 per cent.  

Back home, after opening the session with a modest uptick, the key benchmark indices soon slipped into a negative territory. Thereafter, it gradually headed lower but in the second half of the trading session, the benchmark indices staged a smart recovery from the lower levels and ended the day with a negligible loss. BSE Sensex lost 0.08 per cent and Nifty declined by 0.06 per cent. In the broader markets, Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap dropped 0.20 and 0.03 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, majority of the sectors ended in red wherein, Nifty Media, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Realty were the top losers and on the flipside, Nifty Metal and Nifty FMCG ended in green. 

On the final trading session of the week, US stocks turned volatile on the back of slew of data released. April’s consumer spending data showed a whopping decline of 16.4 per cent and the industrial production index tumbled a record 11.2 per cent in April. Despite a grim data, recovery was seen on Wall Street and at the close, stocks ended the day with modest gains. Dow jumped 60 points, S&P 500 index rose 11 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 71 points. European indices too staged a recovery after an early setback and ended the session in green.