Markets may open on a subdued note amid mixed global cues
The opening for the Indian markets is likely to be subdued as Asian markets are indecisive, and in overnight trade, the Wall Street was a tad nervous. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could open with a loss of 30 points at 10,672.
The Asian shares indicate mixed trend in lacklustre trading on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 witnessing gains of 0.26%, while China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng are seeing miniscule losses of 0.09% and 0.05%, respectively.
Back home, major indices remained under pressure for the third successive session and lost over half per cent. After opening the session on a flat note, selling pressure emerged thereafter. However, during the mid-afternoon session, the indices tried to settle, but the fall in the last moment pushed the major indices further lower as the Brent crude oil price touched 80 dollar/barrel for the first time since 2014. At the end, Nifty shed 58 points to end below the important psychological mark of 10,700 and the BSE Sensex slumped 239 points to close at 35,149. The broader indices outshined the frontline indices, with the Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap indices gaining 0.37% and 0.97%, respectively. All the sectoral indices ended in the red, except Nifty Realty and Nifty Pharma, which gained 0.10% and 0.05%, respectively. The top losers were Nifty FMCG and Nifty Media.
The US stocks closed with modest losses on Thursday, as selling in technology stocks offset an upmove in the energy sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 55 points to close at 24,714, the Nasdaq slipped 16 points to finish at 7,382 and the S&P 500 lost 2 points to end the day at 2,720. The US labour department released a report showing initial jobless claims rose by 11,000 to 222,000 in the latest week, the highest level in a month. The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index showed a substantial acceleration in pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity as the reading came in at 34.4 for the month of May. In other development, a second round of US-China trade talks was in the focus, but the US President Donald Trump expressed doubts about whether the high level trade talks with China would be fruitful.
The European markets closed higher on Thursday. The DAX of Germany surged 0.91%, the CAC 40 of France climbed 0.98% and the FTSE 100 of UK rose 0.70%. According to industry data published on Thursday, European car sales grew by 9.6% YoY in the month of April.