Positive start likely amid encouraging global cues

Indian stocks are expected to make a positive start as cues from the global markets are encouraging. The political crisis in Italy seems to be a thing of the past as it did not have a major impact on the Indian markets. One may look forward to some action in the Indian markets in the second half of the trading session as today is F&O expiry day for the May series. The trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty may open higher by 35 points around the level of 10,650.  

Asian stocks are in the green territory on Thursday on the back of a strong rally on the Wall Street as Italy's political turmoil subsided. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has gained 84 points; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 155 points and China's Shanghai Composite has jumped 32 points.   

Back home, mirroring weakness in the global markets, Indian benchmarks indices opened with a gap-down and traded with high volatility throughout the day and extended losses for the second straight session. The Nifty settled at 10,614 with a loss of 19 points and the BSE Sensex dipped 43 points to end at 34,906. In the broader markets, Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap indices witnessed minuscule losses as these slipped 0.05% and 0.29%, respectively. On the sectoral front, Nifty Pharma plunged the most with a loss of 1.06%, followed by Nifty Auto and Nifty FMCG. On the other hand, Nifty PSU Banks gained the most, ending higher by 0.63%.  

Wednesday turned-out to be a fabulous day of trading for the US stocks as energy shares bounced back amid a rally in oil price and as concerns about Italian political crises faded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 306 points to close at 24,668, the Nasdaq Composite advanced 66 points to finish at 7,462 and the S&P 500 gained 34 points to end at 2,724. On the US economy front, ADP said the US added 178,000 private-sector jobs in May. Meanwhile, April’s figure was reduced by 41,000 to 163,000. The US economy grew in the first quarter at a slightly slower pace than previously estimated.  

Majority of European stock indices rebounded on Wednesday as concerns of an Italian political crisis in the euro zone’s third largest economy eased. The DAX of Germany rose 0.93%, CAC 40 of France fell 0.20% and the FTSE 100 of UK climbed 0.75%.