Markets likely to make muted start tracking subdued cues from Asian peers

The key benchmark indices in India are expected to begin the week on a quiet note as leads from Asian peers are not encouraging. Nifty 50 index future on the Singapore stock exchange is currently trading up by 7 points at 11,036. Hindustan Unilever will be in focus as it is due to announce its quarterly earnings today. On the macro front, WPI inflation for the month of June will be announced.  

Asian stock markets are seen posting modest losses on Monday following lacklustre session in the US. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index has dipped 0.30% and China’s Shanghai Composite has lost 0.52% as the Chinese economy grew at 6.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 from a year ago. The markets in Japan’s are closed for a holiday.  

Back home, Indian stocks halted their five-day winning streak on Friday, ending the session with negligible loss as traders opted to take home profits after recent gains ahead of the weekend. The selling pressure was intense in the broader indices with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap indices plunging 1.14% and 2.56%, respectively. Talking about the sectoral performance, barring Nifty IT, which ended the session marginally in the green, all other sectoral indices ended in the red. Nifty Media and Nifty PSU Bank were among the top losers.  

The US stocks ended the last trading session of the week modestly higher, with the Dow reclaiming the 25,000-mark and the tech-heavy Nasdaq hitting a new record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 95 points to close at 25,019, the Nasdaq Composite index inched up 2 points to finish at 7,826 and the S&P 500 added 3 points to end at 2,801. During the session, traders diverted their attention from trade war to the second quarter earnings season. The earnings reported were somewhat mixed.  

The European indices closed in the positive terrain on Friday, but off the day’s high. The DAX of Germany increased 0.38%, CAC 40 of France rose 0.43% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.14%.