Negative start likely for the markets

Indian markets are likely to open slightly in the red. The SGX Nifty is pointing that Nifty may open lower by 34 points at 10,308.  

Asian stock markets are mostly higher on Monday with modest gains, despite the negative leads from Wall Street amid trade concerns. Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 has gained 26 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has gained 139 points, while China’s Shanghai Composite is trading flat.  

Back home, equity benchmarks ended the last trading session of the week with modest gains. After starting the session on a negative note, benchmark indices traded in a restricted range for most part of the session. However, buying in the last leg of the session helped indices to end in the green. The BSE Sensex settled at 33,627, up by 30 points, and the Nifty ended the session with gains of 6 points at 10,332. The broader indices outperformed the benchmark indices as Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap rose 0.52% and 0.94%, respectively. Sector-wise, Nifty Pharma emerged as a top gainer, followed by Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Realty.  

The US stock markets witnessed a bloodbath on Friday with the Dow closing below the 24,000-mark as investors continue to worry over the escalating China-US trade war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 572 points to close at 23,933, the Nasdaq sank 161 points to finish at 6,915 and the S&P 500 dived 58 points to end at 2,604. Along with the rising trade war tension between China and the US, the report from the Labour Department indicating US job growth had slowed much more than anticipated dampened the sentiments further.   

The European markets finished lower on Friday as dismal US jobs growth for March and flare-up in the war of words between the world’s two biggest economies weighed on the sentiments. The DAX of Germany slipped 0.52%, CAC 40 of France dipped 0.35% and the FTSE 100 of UK ended lower by 0.22%.