Markets may begin on a weak note tracking mixed cues from Asian peers

The outlook is a weak start for the first trading session of September 2019. Impacting the investors' sentiments in today’s session would be a slew of domestic and global developments over the weekend. To begin with, India’s GDP growth has slumped to over 6-year low of 5 per cent in the June quarter of 2019-20. The auto sales for the month of August 2019 continue to reflect the downward trend, with major players having reported a significant decline in their respective sales. The GST collection for the month of August has dropped below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. On the global front, a new round of tariffs came into effect as China and the US began imposing additional tariffs on each others' goods. Also, the investors’ attention in today’s session would be drawn by the public sector banks after the government revealed its plan to merge 10 public sector banks into four larger banks. The SGX Nifty was trading at the 10,947 level.

Asian shares are witnessing minor change and are trading mixed as the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies continue to rise after China lodged a complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization (WTO) a day after new tariffs were imposed by Washington on billions of dollar of Chinese goods. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up marginally, while China’s Shanghai Composite and the Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 are almost unchanged.

Back home, the key benchmark indices ended the final trading session of the week on a higher note, with the BSE Sensex advancing 0.71 per cent and Nifty adding 0.68 per cent. After opening the session in the green and trading with gains in the initial trading, the indices gave up almost all their gains and entered into the negative terrain. However, in the latter part of the session, expectation of some favourable announcement by the FM triggered strong recovery and the indices managed to end near the high point of the day. The broader market indices outperformed the frontline gauges, with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap soaring 0.95 per cent and 1.23 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, all sectors ended in the green. Nifty Pharma, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Metal and Nifty Media were the top performers. 

The US stock markets were closed on Monday in observance of Labour Day.  

The European markets ended in the positive terrain on Monday with UK’s FTSE outpacing their European peers as it closed higher by 1.11 per cent, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 added 0.13 per cent and 0.15 per cent, respectively.