Markets may start on a tepid note tracking muted cues from Asian peers

Markets may begin the day with modest gains as indicated by the SGX Nifty and also, slightly encouraging cues from the Wall Street overnight. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading higher by 22 points at 11,673 level. The much awaited event, the general election will garner the attention of the investors going ahead as the first phase of election in the world’s largest democracy begins today.

Asian stocks are seen trading on a muted note on Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was higher by 0.06 per cent, while the Japanese stock market Nikkei was down 0.04 per cent.

Back home, the bears took a grip over the key benchmark indices as these witnessed a sharp fall on Wednesday, led by HDFC twins and marquee IT names. The session started on a panicky note as fears of global slowdown resurfaced with IMF downgrading its global growth forecast. Also, fresh trade tensions emerged between the US and European Union. However, buying on the dips was the mantra for traders and it seemed bulls would do a repeat of the Tuesday’s session. However, all hopes fizzled out as a sharp decline in the second half of the session put the bulls on the defensive and the market ended in the red. The BSE Sensex dropped 354 points and Nifty ended down by 88 points. The broader markets showed some resilience and outperformed the frontline gauges with Nifty Midcap shedding 0.28 per cent and the Smallcap index adding 0.32 per cent. Talking about the sectoral performance, a majority of the sectoral indices ended in the red with Nifty Financial Services and Nifty PSU Bank leading the fall, while Nifty Realty and Nifty Pharma ended as top gainers.  

The US stocks ended Wednesday's session in the green, with the latest minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting reflecting a patient approach that allowed for flexibility. The inflation data came in mixed with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increasing 0.4 per cent for March which was slightly higher than expected and the core rate was 0.1 per cent higher for the period. The Dow Industrial Average added 0.03 per cent, the S&P 500 index rose 0.35 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 0.69 per cent.

Majority of the European indices ended higher on Wednesday despite ECB President Mario Draghi mentioning that the recent data confirm a ‘slowing growth momentum’ and the risk to the Euro area outlook is still titled to the downside. Meanwhile, the ECB held interest rates steady. The France’s CAC 40 gained 0.25 per cent and the DAX of Germany advanced 0.47 per cent. while the UK’s FTSE 100 closed just below the neutral line.