Asian markets shining; Nifty index trading with gains; hints a positive start for Indian indices

The Indian benchmark indices on Wednesday opened on a positive note and showed some strength in morning trades, but it slipped in the negative terrain in afternoon trade as investors sentiment dampened after media reports suggested that Pakistani fighter jets flew near the Siachen Glacier on 24 May 2017, but Indian Air Force reportedly said there was no violation of India's airspace. The broader markets witnessed sharp selling with Midcap and Small-cap indices tumbling about 1.4 per cent each. To end with, the NSE's 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, suffered a moderate cut of a quarter per cent to settle below the important psychological 9,400 mark, while Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index-Sensex- slipped around sixty-three points and closed just above the psychological 30,300 mark.

The majority of the European markets ended Wednesday's session with small losses. The DAX of Germany dropped 0.13 per cent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.13 per cent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.40 per cent.

U.S. stocks registered their 5th straight session of gains on Wednesday, the S&P 500 closed at a record as minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy showed broad agreement on plans to begin shirking the central bank’s balance sheet and also pointed to a likely rate hike next month, as widely expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 75 points to end at 21,012. The S&P 500 index accumulated 6 points to finish at 2,404. The Nasdaq Composite Index scaled up 24 points to close at 6,163.

Asian markets are trading in positive territory on Thursday. Japan’s markets Nikkei 225 rose 106 points. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 169 points and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 4 points.

At 8:16 am SGX Nifty Index trading with gains of 38 points at 9,411, indicating a solid start for Indian indices. Today is the May Series F&O expiry; hence, we may see some volatility in the markets.