Markets may begin the week on a positive note

Indian shares look set to kick off the week on a positive note, mirroring firm cues from global markets. The SGX Nifty suggesting that the Nifty could open higher by 45 points around 10,549.50 at the opening bell.  

Asian equities continued to build on their recent gains early Monday, following the positive leads from the Wall Street on a drop in bond yields. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index has gained 180 points amid a modest drop for the yen, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has surged 137 and China’s Shanghai Composite is trading flat.   

Back home, the benchmark indices, after going through a dismal February series, kicked off the March series on a strong note as indices ended about 1% higher on Friday taking cues from the global markets. The broader indices outperformed the benchmark indices as the Nifty Mid-cap and Nifty Small-cap surged 1.72% and 1.91%, respectively. On the NSE, all the sectoral indices ended in the green, Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma rallied 3.19% and 2.64, respectively.  

The US markets ended the Friday’s session at their best levels of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 348 points to close at 25,310, the S&P 500 surged 43 points to finish at 2,747 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 127 points to end at 7,337, snapping a four-session downslide and taking the index just 2.2% shy of its January peak. The sentiments turned bullish on Wall Street as the treasury yields retreated from higher levels, the ten-year yield pulling back further off the four-year.   

The European markets ended the last trading session of the week on a mixed note as markets fluctuated between small gains and losses throughout the day. Germany’s DAX rose 0.18%, CAC 40 of France added 0.15% and UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% to close at 7,244, logging a second day in the red.