Flat start likely despite positive cues from Asian peers

Going by early indication of SGX Nifty, the market is set for a flat start. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was almost unchanged and trading at the 10,862 mark. Meanwhile, the cues from Asian peers are cheerful, which might trigger a rebound in the domestic benchmark indices after a sharp fall witnessed in the last hour of trading on Wednesday. On the results front, Ultratech Cement and Page Industries along with about 170 companies are scheduled to announce their June quarter earnings today. Market participants will also continue to monitor crude oil price and rupee movement.  

A majority of the Asian markets are trading on a cheerful note on Thursday morning following sharp rebound on the Wall Street overnight. Investors will keep an eye on the July figures of imports, exports and trade balance of China. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has jumped 0.77 per cent, Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 has advanced 0.56 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite index has surged 0.73 per cent. 

Back home, markets began the session on a cautious note and the indices swung both ways. The announcement of repo rate cut of 35 bps by the Reserve Bank India failed to cheer the investors and the markets corrected sharply to close near the day’s low. Nifty lost 0.85 per cent and BSE Sensex dropped 0.77 per cent. The broader market indices ended the session in the red, with Nifty Midcap and Small registering losses of 0.75 per cent and 0.58 per cent, respectively. Among the sectoral indices, except for Nifty Media, Nifty Pharma and Nifty IT which ended in the green, all other indices witnessed selling pressure, with Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Metal and Nifty Auto being the top losers.

The US equities opened notably lower in the morning on Wednesday, but managed to show a substantial turnaround in the afternoon, ending the day on a mixed to positive note. The Dow ended with modest cut of 22 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively.

The European stocks closed in the green on Wednesday. Germany’s DAX rose 0.71 per cent, France’s CAC 40 inched higher 0.61 per cent and the UK’s FTSE 100 ended up 0.38 per cent lower.