Muted start likely on mixed cues from Asian peers

The stock markets in India are expected to witness a quiet start on Wednesday as cues from the Asian peers are mixed. The trade war between the US and China appears to be escalating by the day and this is likely to keep the markets on the tenterhooks. The Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange are currently trading with modest loss of 8 points at 10,719.  

The Asian stock markets are trading mixed early on Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has gained 25 points, while China’s Shanghai Composite has lost 10 points and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index is almost unchanged.  

Back home on Tuesday, equity benchmarks opened the session on a pessimistic note and, thereafter, the trading was lacklustre. However, in the last leg of the session, the key indices extended their losses to end near their intra-day low points. On the political front, the BJP has pulled out of its alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir. The selling pressure was intense in the broader markets, as the Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap indices slumped 1.22% and 1.48%, respectively. Sector-wise, weakness was seen across the board with all sectoral indices closing in the negative terrain. Nifty Realty emerged as the top loser, followed by Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal, which ended lower by 1.57%.  

The US stocks ended Tuesday’s session in the red terrain on the back of trade war concern after President Donald Trump directed US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to identify $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 287 points to close at 24,700, and with this decline, the Dow marked its sixth straight drop representing the longest skid since March 2017, wiping out all of its gains in 2018 . The S&P 500 lost 11 points to finish at 2,763 and the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 21 points to end at 7,726.  

The European equities ended Tuesday’s session on a gloomy note after the US President Donald Trump's threat of new tariffs on Chinese goods. The DAX of Germany declined 1.22%, the CAC 40 of France dropped 1.10% and the FTSE 100 finished lower by 0.36%.