Markets may open with minor uptick despite negative global cues

As we enter the first trading session for the month of June, the Indian equity markets have to deal with a double whammy. The Q4FY19 GDP came in lower at 5.8 per cent and 6.8 per cent for the full year. At the same time, unemployment rate rose to 6.1 per cent in the FY2017-18, which was at multi-year high. Meanwhile, the GST revenue in the month of May stood at Rs 1,00,289 crore and, for the third month in a row, the government has managed to collect over Rs 1 lakh crore of GST. However, the collection was lower than the previous month. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was up by 33 points at 11,958 level, which suggests Nifty may open with marginal uptick. Investors will watch out for Nikkei manufacturing PMI for May, while auto sales numbers for the month of May can cause some swings in auto stocks.

A majority of the Asian markets are trading in the red on Monday following sell-off seen on the Wall Street last Friday. The Japanese stock index Nikkei 225 has nosedived 1.21 per cent. The South Korean KOSPI has advanced 0.42 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has slipped 0.33 per cent.

Back home, Friday’s session turned out to be a volatile one for the key equity benchmark indices. After starting the session on a positive note and trading in the positive terrain for the initial part of the trading session, a sudden bout of selling pressure was seen and, in a short span of time, the indices plunged sharply. However, the indices managed to recoup most of their losses and ended the session with modest losses with Nifty and BSE Sensex shedding 0.19 per cent and 0.30 per cent, respectively. The broader indices ended the session in the red terrain, with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap losing 0.21 per cent and 1.18 per cent, respectively. Talking about the sectoral performance, barring Nifty IT, all other sectors witnessed selling pressure with Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Media being the top losers.

The US stocks finished solidly lower on Friday after US President Trump threatened to increase tariffs on imports from Mexico within two weeks. Also, University of Michigan released a report showing a bigger than expected downward revision to its reading on the US consumer sentiment in the month of May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 1.4 per cent, the Nasdaq composite dropped 1.5 per cent and the S&P 500 Index plunged 1.3 per cent.  

The European stocks closed notably lower on Friday after the announcement by the US President took the investors by surprise as he threatened to increase tariffs on Mexico. The Germany’s benchmark DAX plummeted 1.47 per cent, France’s CAC 40 index declined 0.79 per cent and UK’s FTSE 100 lost 0.78 per cent.