Markets may open in the negative following pessimistic global cues

Following an extended weekend, Indian markets would open on Tuesday under pressure on the backdrop of dampened global cues and also some media reports suggesting that President Donald Trump plans to end key trade preference for India. At the time of writing, the SGX Nifty was trading down by 10 points at the level of 10,838. In the economic data, market participants will look forward to the release of Nikkei Services PMI for the month of February which is due today.

All major indices in Asia were trading in the red on Tuesday following the negative cues from the Wall Street overnight and in the wake of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang comments that the government aims for the economy to grow at 6.0-6.5 per cent, down from the target of 6.5 per cent last year.

Back home, Friday turned out to be a fabulous day for the indices as key benchmark indices reclaimed important psychological mark of 36,000 (BSE Sensex) and 10,850 (Nifty). The start of the day was dazzling on the back of de-escalation of geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan. As the day progressed, volatility was seen in the indices, which however maintained their gains to end the day on a strong note. The broader markets continued their outperformance for the third straight day in a row, with the Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap climbing 1.44 per cent and 2.70 per cent, respectively. Among the sectoral indices, all sectoral indices ended in the green, with Nifty Media, PSU Bank and Metal ending as top gainers.

The US stocks opened higher on Monday on the back of hopes that the US and China may be really close to a trade deal, but soon stocks pulled back sharply around noon. However, later in the day, the stocks recovered some ground to end well off the worst levels. At the close of trading, the Dow Jones was down by about 207 points, the S&P 500 Index edged down 11 points and the Nasdaq slipped 18 points. In the economic news, construction spending eased 0.6 per cent in the month of December, which stood in contrast to the growth posted in November.

Majority of the European stocks finished the first trading session of the week in the green on reports that the world’s two largest economies are close to signing a trade deal, but the Brexit concerns continued to fester. The DAX of Germany declined 0.08 per cent, while the CAC 40 added 0.41 per cent and the FTSE 100 of the UK rose 0.39 per cent.