Bearish start likely following negative global cues

Nifty continued the fall for the sixth day and lost about 589 points since July expiry. The July F&O series was the worst since October 2018. In early action, the trend in SGX Nifty indicates that the Indian markets may be greeted by bears on the first day of August series and it seems Dalal Street will extend its losing streak to the seven straight session. At the time of writing, the SGX Nifty is trading down by 23 points at the 11,278 level. The pivotals set to release their numbers today are Bajaj Auto, JSW Steel, Maruti and PNB.

Most of the Asian markets are trading in the red terrain on the final trading session of the week following the pessimistic cues overnight from Wall Street amid anticipation that the US Fed may perhaps be less aggressive than expected with the monetary policy in its upcoming meet due next week. The Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 has slipped 0.50 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has shed 0.51 per cent, while China’s Shanghai Composite index is almost unchanged.  

Back home, key benchmark indices failed to hold on to their initial gains and ended the last trading session of July F&O series with marginal losses. It was the sixth successive session of losses for the Nifty. The Nifty closed down by 0.17 per cent at 11,252 and the BSE Sensex dipped 0.04 per cent to close at 37,831. The broader market indices ended the day in the positive terrain and outperformed the frontline gauges with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap ending higher by 0.40 per cent and 0.08 per cent, respectively. Talking about the sectoral performance, Nifty Metal and Nifty PSU Bank were top losers, while Nifty Pharma and Nifty Media were top gainers. 

The US stocks finished lower on Thursday amid a slew of mixed earnings and economic data. On the economic front, durable goods orders spiked and jobless claims surprisingly fell. At the end, the Dow closed down by 129 points, the S&P 500 shed 16 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 83 points.

On Thursday the European markets declined as market participants digested the ECB's unchanged monetary policy. However, the ECB altered its forward guidance amid deteriorating economic data in the Eurozone. Germany’s DAX dropped 1.28 per cent, France’s CAC 40 and UK’s FTSE 100 declined lost 0.5 per cent and 0.17 per cent, respectively.