Markets likely to make a muted start on cues from Asian peers

Indian markets are likely to make mildly positive start as Asian peers are lacking clear direction. The trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty may open with modest gains of 8 points around the level of 10,647.  

Asian markets are trading sans direction on Monday with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading the way with gains of 125 points. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is trading almost unchanged, while the Shanghai Composite has lost 17 points.  

Back home, extending the previous session’s rally, Indian equity benchmark ended the Friday’ s session with solid gains. Nifty reclaimed its important psychological level of 10,600, while Sensex closed above 34,900. The buying was not restricted to large-caps but was quite broad-based, as Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap jumped 1.95% and 1.52%, respectively. As for sectoral indices, barring Nifty IT, all other sectors ended in the green with Nifty Metal leading the way, followed by Nifty Auto and Nifty Media.  

The US stocks ended mostly lower on the last trading session of the week on the back of sell-off seen in energy shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 59 points to close at 24,753 and the S&P 500 fell 6 points to finish at 2,721. Bucking the trend, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index inched up 9 points to end the day at 7,444. The trading on Wall Street was  lacklustre as some traders were away from their desks since the markets will remain closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day.  

The European stock markets ended Friday’s session with mixed results amid continued ambiguity surrounding Italy’s government-in-waiting. The DAX of Germany rose 0.65%, FTSE 100 of UK gained 0.18%,  but the CAC 40 of France slipped 0.11%.