Subdued opening likely following muted cues from Asian peers

The Indian equity markets will re-open after a long weekend and markets will first react to earnings of index bigwigs such as Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.  While there are no clear cues from the global peers, we expect markets to begin on muted note as, at the time of writing, SGX Nifty was trading down by 9 points at 11,799.

The stocks in Asia are seen trading on a muted note on Monday. The Japanese stock market Nikkei was marginally up by 0.15 per cent, while Hong Kong’s index Hang Seng was closed for Easter Monday holiday.

Back home, volatility was the hallmark of Thursday’s session as the benchmark indices had reversed their early morning gains amid profit-taking ahead of long weekend, due to which the indices ended their four-day winning streak and ended the day with marginal losses. The BSE Sensex slipped 0.34 per cent and Nifty lost 0.29 per cent. The broader market indices witnessed a sharp sell-off and underperformed the frontline gauges, with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap dropping 0.93 per cent and 1.52 per cent, respectively.  Talking about the sectoral indices, all the sectoral indices ended in the red, with Nifty Realty, Nifty Media and Nifty PSU Bsnk ending as top losers.

The US markets ended Thursday's session slightly higher amid a rebound in the domestic retail sales and as US jobless claims reached 50-year low. The Dow Industrial Average jumped 0.42 per cent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.02 per cent and the S&P 500 Index was up by 0.16 per cent. On Friday, the US markets were closed on account of Good Friday.  

Majority of European markets ended Thursday’s session with gains. The France’s CAC 40 rose 0.31 per cent and the DAX of Germany edged up 0.57 per cent, while UK’s FTSE 100 slipped by 0.15 per cent The European markets were closed on account of Good Friday and on Monday too, the markets will remain closed on account of Easter Monday.