Markets may open flat
Indian markets are expected to make a flat start. The muted trend in SGX Nifty, which was trading with a loss of 4 points at 11,095, indicated that domestic bourses may witness a flat opening. A host of companies will announce their quarterly results today, namely, Asian Paints, Century Plyboards, Chambal Fertlisers, Hexaware Technologies, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Info Edge, KRBL, Kajaria Ceramics, Radico Khaitan, Music Broadcast, Power Grid, and TV18 Broadcast.
Majority of Asian markets are trading higher on Tuesday. China’s Shanghai Composite has jumped 1.41 per cent, leading the gains in the region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index has risen 1.21 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 has gained 0.61 per cent.
Back home, it was a great start to the week for the Indian benchmark indices with Sensex hitting fresh all-time high levels, while Nifty ended above the 11,080-mark. After making a flat start, indices traded in a narrow range in the first half of the session. However, bulls were seen taking charge in the second half of the session as buying emerged across the broad and took markets near intra-day highs. Talking about sectoral performance, except Nifty IT, all other major indices ended in the green with Nifty FMCG, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Realty emerging top performers. The broader markets were seen in an upbeat mood too as Nifty Mid-cap and Nifty Small-cap indices gained 1.11 per cent and 0.73 per cent, respectively.
On the Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq eked out modest gains, while the Dow ended in the red on Monday. The National Association of Realtors released a report showing an unexpected drop in existing home sales in the month of June. As per the report, home sales fell by 0.6 per cent in June from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rae of 5.38 million. Meanwhile, investors could be facing a new round of geopolitical disturbance after the US President Donald Trump issued a dire warning to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, escalating the war of words prior to the looming sanctions against Iran. The Dow dipped 14 points to close at 25,044, while the S&P 500 gained 5 points to finish at 2,807 and the Nasdaq closed up 13 points to end at 7,842.
The European indices ended the first day of the new trading week with modest losses as trade war concerns weighed on the sentiment. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is heading to the White House this week in a last-ditch effort by the EU to cool nerves and avert an all-out trade war with the US. The DAX of Germany dropped 0.10 per cent, CAC 40 of France shed 0.37 per cent and UK’s FTSE 100 finished lower by 0.30 per cent.