Markets likely to open higher amid positive cues from Asian peers

The Indian markets may open the session with an uptick as sentiment remained upbeat among the Asian peers and as overnight cues from the Wall Street were relatively stable. At the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading around 11,701 mark with a gain of 16 points.  

Asian markets are seen trading with modest gains on Friday after a report indicated that Chinese Vice Premier Liu said a new consensus has been reached between the world’s two largest economies. The Japanese stock market Nikkei has risen 0.25 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is closed for a holiday.

Back home, a 25 bps rate cut by the monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) failed to cheer the key equity benchmarks as they ended Thursday's session in the negative terrain. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty ended with losses of 0.49 per cent and 0.39 per cent, respectively. The broader indices ended in the red with Nifty Midcap and Small-cap ending with losses of 0.21 per cent and 0.47 per cent, respectively. Talking about sectoral performance, a majority of the sectoral indices ended in the red with Nifty IT and Nifty Private Sector Bank ending as top losers, while Nifty Media and Nifty Pharma surging 1.09 per cent and 0.91 per cent, respectively.

Majority of the US markets ended Thursday's session in the green amid favourable read on the US jobless claims. The Dow Industrial Average gained 0.64 per cent and the S&P 500 Index added 0.21 per cent. while the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed near the neutral line with a negative bias. In the coming session, all eyes will be on the non-farm payroll report. The US President Donald Trump in a briefing to media said at the start of a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu, "We’re getting very close to making a deal. That doesn’t mean a deal is made, because it’s not, but we’re certainly getting a lot closer".

Most of the markets in European region ended Thursday's session with losses amid disappointing data which showed a drop in Germany’s factory orders. The France’s CAC 40 edged lower by 0.09 per cent and the UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.22 per cent. while the DAX of Germany gained 0.28 per cent.