Markets may begin on a cautious note amid mixed global cues

The Indian markets may not have any major cues from the global peers to deal with for now. The attention in the domestic markets will shift towards corporate results, with the IT majors Infosys and TCS kick-starting the earning seasons today. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading down by 38 points at 11,638 levels and clearly indicating a cautious start to the day. Besides corporate earnings, important macroeconomic data in store for the day include IIP and CPI. For the last one week, Nifty is trading in the zone of 11,550-11,710 and a lot will depend on the outcome of corporate earnings, which will dictate the market trend in the coming days.  

Asian stocks are seen trading on a mixed note on Friday. The Japanese stock market Nikkei was up by 0.39 per cent. while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has slipped 0.33 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite is trading near the neutral line.

Back home, on Thursday, after opening the session with mild gains, the indices trimmed their morning gains and entered in the negative terrain. Thereafter, the indices see-sawed between the green and the red territory and finally settled the day with minuscule gains. The Nifty closed at 11,597, up by 12 points, and the BSE Sensex rose 21 points to end at 38,607. The broader indices ended in the green as well, with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap adding 0.09 per cent and 0.25 per cent, respectively. Among the sectoral indices, majority of the sectoral indices ended in the red, with Nifty Metal and Nifty IT ending as top losers, while Nifty Auto and Nifty FMCG putting up a good show and ending as top gainers.

The US stocks finished mixed on Thursday in a volatile day of trading as traders seemed reluctant to make any significant move ahead of the upcoming earning season. In the economic news, the Producer Price Index surged in March and jobless claims surprisingly dropped. The Dow Industrial Average dipped 0.05 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 0.21 per cent, while the S&P 500 index ended flat with a positive bias.  

The European indices ended mostly higher on Thursday following the European Union extending the deadline for Brexit. The France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.66 per cent and the DAX of Germany gained 0.25 per cent, while UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.05 per cent.