Markets may open flat despite positive global cues

The outlook for the Indian markets is a flat start with a positive bias. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading higher by 15 points at 11,917 level. With the start of the countdown to the Union budget, the markets are stuck in limbo currently. The markets are likely to make a directional move on the budget day, depending on what is in store in the budget.

A majority of the Asian stocks are seen trading in the green following strong leads from the Wall Street overnight. The Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 is up 0.11 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has surged 1.31 per cent, while China’s Shanghai Composite has slipped 0.24 per cent.

Back home, the markets started the month of July on a fabulous note on the back of easing of trade war tension between the US and China. Thereafter, the markets traded in a capped range throughout the day. In the end, Nifty was up 0.65 per cent and BSE Sensex rose 0.74 per cent. The broader indices ended in the green as well but underperformed the frontline gauges with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap adding 0.17 per cent and 0.59 per cent, respectively. Among the sectoral indices, barring Nifty IT and Nifty Metal, all other indices witnessed buying interest with Nifty Media and Nifty Realty emerging top gainers. 

Reacting to the news that the US will refrain from imposing additional tariffs on goods from China and trade talks are getting back on track, the US stocks opened strongly on Monday. However, as the day progressed, the stocks came off from the highs of the day. At the closing bell, the Dow rose 118 points, the S&P added 23 points and the Nasdaq climbed 85 points.

The European equities finished higher on Monday, with the G20 summit over the weekend delivering a tariff truce between the US and China which eased trade fears and outweighed some weak economic data from the Eurozone. Germany’s DAX jumped 0.99 per cent, France’s CAC 40 added 0.52 per cent and UK’s FTSE 100 closed higher by 0.97 per cent.