Markets may continue with uptrend despite negative global cues

Indian markets are expected to continue their jubilant run despite lacklustre cues from the Asian markets and Wall Street overnight. The SGX Nifty Index Future was trading with a gain of 36 points at 10,951.50. Going ahead, market participants will watch out for key data to be released after market hours, such as India's GDP for September quarter, India's fiscal deficit and infrastructure output.  
  
Majority of Asian indices are lacking clear direction on the final trading session of the week as market participants are cautious ahead of the much-awaited meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Argentina. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has gained 0.36 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite index has risen 0.16 per cent, while the Japanese stock market Nikkei 225 is almost unchanged. 
  
Back home, the key benchmark indices started off the day with a bang and traded in a strong positive zone for the entire session to extend the rally for the fourth day on Thursday. The NSE Nifty ended November F&O series above 10,850 mark, up by 1.21 per cent and the BSE Sensex soared 1.27 per cent to end above the 36,150 mark. The broader indices relatively underperformed the frontline indices as Nifty Mid-cap added 0.51 per cent, while Nifty Small-cap dipped 0.09 per cent. On the sectoral front, barring Nifty IT, all indices ended in the green, with Nifty Pvt Bank and Nifty Metal leading the gainers list.  
  
The US stocks started out trading lower due to a slew of weaker economic data. However, the stocks rebounded from the lower levels to end Thursday's session marginally lower. Pending home sales showed a substantial decrease in the month of November and the labour department released a report showing initial jobless claims unexpectedly rising to a six-month high in the week ended November 24. The markets took support as the minutes from the Fed’s November meeting were made public. These documents indicated to a December rate hike, but the Fed’s concern about tariffs and the current strength of economy has increased and, as a result, this may cause interest rate hikes to slow in 2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.11 per cent, the S&P 500 dipped 0.22 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 0.25 per cent.  
  
Most of the European indices posted modest gains during Thursday’s session. The DAX of Germany closed almost unchanged, the CAC of France rose 0.46 and the UK’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.49 per cent.