Markets poised for a quiet start tracking subdued cues from Asian peers

The outlook for the day is a quiet start and there are chances that the market may continue to exhibit sluggishness on account of continuing consolidation. The Nifty 50 index future on the Singapore stock exchange is currently trading with modest loss of 4 points at 10,751.  

Asian markets were mostly subdued on Wednesday as investors once again refrained from making significant moves due to concerns about a global trade war. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading up by 5 points, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index and China’s Shanghai Composite were down by 0.41% and 0.06%, respectively.  

Back home, the benchmark indices ended the volatile session almost flat on Tuesday. The BSE Sensex rose 20 points to close at 35,490 and NSE Nifty added 7 points to settle at 10,769. The broader market indices settled down with losses, with the Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap indices losing 0.19% and 0.93%, respectively. On the sectoral front, Nifty FMCG (1.04%) and Nifty IT (0.56%) were top gainers while Nifty Realty (0.72%) and Nifty Auto (0.53%) ended as top losers.  

The US stocks took a breather on Tuesday after witnessing havoc in the previous trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 30 points to close at 24,283; closing below its important long term moving average, i.e. 200-day moving average for the second straight day. The S&P 500 index added 6 points to end at 2,723 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 30 points to finish at 7,562. The Wall Street fear gauge CBOE VIX cooled off on Tuesday  as its slipped below the level of 16, a drop of about 8 per cent.  

The European stock markets witnessed lack of direction in the Tuesday’s trading session as the indices ended the session in different directions. The DAX of Germany slipped 0.29%, the CAC 40 of France dropped 0.05% and the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.37%.