Markets may begin the week on a positive note

Subdued cues from Asian peers suggest Indian stock markets are likely to open flat with positive bias, but the trend remains positive. The SGX Nifty is trading at 10,394 with gains of 23 points.  

Today’s session is going to be a busy day as far as corporate earnings are concerned as about 70 companies are expected to announce their financial results today. Some of the major companies are as follows: Bharti Infratel, Bharat Electronics, Central Bank of India, IDFC, Kajaria Ceramics, LIC Housing Finance, HDFC, Lupin, Tata Steel, UPL, Marico, Sintex Industries, Wockhardt and Century Plyboards.  

Major indices in Asia were trading mixed on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 has lost 47 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has shed 18 points and China’s Shanghai Composite has dipped 22 points.  

Back home, after opening the session on a strong note, Nifty failed to capitalize on the momentum and pared gains towards the end of the session. Thus, it ended in the red after four consecutive sessions in the green, while Sensex settled with tiny gains. The BSE Sensex closed at 33,157 with gains of 10 points and Nifty shed 21 points to settle at 10,323. Sector wise, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Media were buzzing on the bourses as these indices logged gains of 2.35% and 1.49%, respectively. On the other hand, after showing stellar performance in the previous sessions, Nifty PSU Bank index saw profit booking due to which it slipped 4.21%.  

In the US, all the three benchmark indices closed in the positive territory on Friday, but the tech-laden Nasdaq outperformed its counterparts by a wide margin, fuelled by sharp rally in the technology stocks following better-than-estimated quarterly results from Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Intel Corp. The Nasdaq surged 144 points to 6,701, followed by the S&P 500 which gained 21 points to 2,581, while the Dow inched up 0.1% per cent to close at 23,434.  

European stocks closed higher on Friday as a number of better-than-expected corporate earnings reports provided a boost to investor sentiments at the end of the trading week. The French CAC 40 index gained 0.71% followed by the German DAX which climbed 0.64% and the FTSE 100 of the UK inched up by 0.25%.