Markets may open flat tracking lacklustre cues from Asian peers

The outlook for the day is muted start on the back of lacklustre trading in the Asian markets. The SGX Nifty is trading almost unchanged at 10,991, indicating a flat start to the day.   
  
Asian markets lacked a clear direction in early Tuesday trading as lingering global trade uneasiness remained, with further tariffs between the US and China announced last week going into effect. The equity benchmarks in Japan advanced 0.17 per cent, while China’s market dipped 0.31 per cent. Hong Kong’s stock market was closed for a public holiday.  
  
Back home, Monday turned out to be a dismal day for the Indian market as the benchmark indices extended their losing streak for the fifth day in a row and slipped below their key psychological levels of 11,000 (Nifty) and 36,400 (BSE Sensex). The broader indices underperformed the frontliners with the Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap indices ending with losses of 2.72 per cent and 2.60 per cent, respectively. Talking about sectoral performance, barring Nifty IT which surged 2.16 per cent, all other sectoral indices ended in the red with Nifty Realty and Nifty Auto plummeting the most by 5.29 per cent and 3.90 per cent, respectively.  
  
The US stocks finished the first trading session of the week on a mixed note amid lingering trade concerns with further tariffs between China and the US going into effect. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 181 points to 26,562 and the S&P 500 Index was down 10 points at 2,919, while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 6 points to close at 7,933. Going ahead, on Wednesday, the FOMC is scheduled to announce its latest monetary policy decision.   
  
The European equity markets kicked off the week on a pessimistic note as sentiments took a hit after the latest round of tariffs targeting US and Chinese goods went into effect on Monday. Also, comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi overstretched the sentiments. Draghi said he expects underlying inflation to rise in the 19 countries that use the euro, as a stronger job market pushes up wages. This indicated that the ECB continues to think that the recovery is strong enough for it to phase out its bond-purchases stimulus at the year end. The DAX of Germany dropped 0.64 per cent; the CAC 40 of France edged down 0.33 per cent and the UK’s FTSE 100 declined 0.42 per cent.