Markets likely to make a cautious start

Indian equity benchmarks are likely to make a cautious start as investors are all eyes on the historic meet between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange is currently trading with modest loss of 5 points at 10,787.  

Asian markets are treading cautiously on Tuesday as US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un have begun a summit in Singapore with a handshake and a prediction from the US president that the meeting would be a ‘tremendous success’ and that the two men were going to have a ‘terrific relationship’. Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index have added 0.28% and 0.26%, respectively, while the Shanghai Composite of China is almost unchanged.  

Back home, Monday turned out to be unpleasant day for the Indian equity markets as frontline indices failed to hold on to their early gains as selling pressure in the final hour of trading forced frontline indices to settle with minuscule gains. The broader markets had a mixed day of trade as the Nifty Mid-cap closed down by 0.03% and Nifty Small-cap settled with modest gains of 0.20%. As for the sectors, most of the sectors ended in the green terrain with Nifty Media and Nifty Pharma surging the most by 1.03% and 0.50% respectively, while on the losing side, Nifty Realty topped the list with a loss of 0.62%, followed by Nifty Metal which lost 0.38%.  

The US stock markets closed with miniscule gains on Monday as traders hesitated to take any significant position ahead of the historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday. The Dow added 6 points to end at 25,322, the Nasdaq surged 14 points to finish at 7,660 and the S&P 500 inched up 3 points to close at 2,782.  

The European stock indices closed firmly in the positive territory on Monday ahead of the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Italian index surged higher after comments by the finance minister soothed investors' concerns on the country exiting the Eurozone. The DAX of Germany rose 0.60%, the CAC 40 of France gained 0.44% and the FTSE 100 finished higher by 0.73%.