Markets may open positive in the wake of fresh GST clearance

After too much hustle and bustle the historic GST bill was finally passed in Rajya Sabha on Aug 03 after market hours. After 18 months of harsh negotiations with Congress finally the bill was cleared with only AIADMK expressing dissatisfaction. Indian markets had a tough day where the benchmark indices witnessed a consolidation breakdown, closing nearly 1 per cent down. Barring IT, all other sectors ended in red where FMCG led the move.

US markets broke the 7 days losing streak where energy sector stocks pulled Wall Street up amid a rally in the Oil prices. Oil settled up at 40.83 USD/ barrel. The WTI Crude Oil was up at 41.14. S&P500 was marginally up by 0.3 per cent. Dow also remained up with 0.23 per cent gains. Nasdaq was up by 0.43 per cent.

European markets were a mixed bag where the banking stocks recovered from early losses with positive earnings data while investors remained cautious ahead of the Bank of England’s policy review where it is expected to cut interest rates by 0.25 bps. Eurozone’s Markit PMI came in at 53.2 in July as against 53.1 earlier, offsetting BREXIT effect. DAX remained up by 0.26 per cent; while CAC40 was down 0.16 per cent. FTSE100 fell by 0.17 per cent.

Asian markets continue with the retreat where Japan’s Nikkei has fallen 0.6 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite has slipped 0.46 per cent. Only Hang Seng is marginally up with 0.3 per cent due to England’s interest cut. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index is 0.35 per cent up. New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 is 0.32 per cent up. South Korea’s KOSPI is 0.19 per cent up.

SGX Nifty too remains positive with 0.4 per cent upside at 8620 levels.  Markets may see some recovery tracking positive global markets and the passing of GST bill. Tata Power has its quarter results today which will be watched out.