Markets to make optimistic start

Indian equity markets are on course to open higher on Friday, following positive leads from global markets. Traders will keep a close eye on results of index heavyweight like Reliance Industries and Maruti Sukuzi. The SGX Nifty indicates that Nifty may open with gains of 43 points at 10,659.   

Barring China’s Shanghai Composite index, Asian markets were trading in the green on the last trading session of the week, following the strong lead from the Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei rose 96 points. The Bank of Japan is set to issue its latest monetary policy outlook report later in the day. The Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has gained 182 points.   

Back home, markets ended the expiry day of April F&O series in a positive terrain on Thursday, as investors cheered Q4 results from private sector lender Yes Bank. After starting the session with a mildly positive bias, Nifty consolidated in a slender range of 30-35 points for the most part of the session. It was only in the last leg of trade did we witness some buying interest which took Nifty past the 10,600 mark.  The broader indices ended in green with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap index gaining 0.37% and 0.02%, respectively. Sector-wise, Nifty FMCG and Nifty PVT Bank ended as top gainer. On the other hand, Nifty PSU Banks ended as top loser. 

US stocks climbed firmly in positive territory on Thursday as traders reacted positively to the latest batch of earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average marked its best one-day gain in about two weeks as it gained 239 points to end at 24,322. The S&P 500 index rose 28 points to 2,667 and the Nasdaq soared 115 points to 7,119 . The stock of social media giant Facebook was buzzing on the bourses as it logged gains of over 9% on back of reporting better than expected earnings. Traders will look forward for the US GDP  numbers due on Friday. 

The European markets closed higher on Thursday. The European Central Bank left its key interest rates unchanged, amid signs of an apparent softening in the Euro zone’s growth outlook. The DAX of Germany advanced 0.63%, the CAC 40 of France gained 0.74% and the FTSE 100 of UK closed up 0.53%.