The Asian Markets Traded mostly higher on Monday morning, while the US stock indices ended mixed last week on hopes that the US Federal Reserve will pause its interest rate hike cycle in the next policy meeting this month.

The Indian equity indices, Sensex and Nifty, ended with healthy gains on Friday, boosted by all-around buying in light of broadly positive global cues ahead.

“Domestic markets made significant gains, buoyed by favourable global cues, a higher-than-expected domestic manufacturing PMI, and positive GDP growth data. This robust economic outlook propelled key manufacturing sectors to lead the rally, while strong sales figures generated increased interest in auto stocks,” said  Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Also Read: Week Ahead: PMI data, crude oil prices, global cues among key market triggers in this week

Here are key global market cues for Sensex today:

Asian Markets

Asian markets traded mixed following hopes of an interest rate hike pause in the US and as investors look ahead to key economic data from China and Australia later in the week.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will announce its interest rate decision on Tuesday, while China will release its trade balance for August on Thursday and inflation data next weekend.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up another 0.1%, having bounced 2.3% last week. 

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.12% and the Topix added 0.16%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.21%, while the Kosdaq fell 0.18%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were trading lower at 18,304, compared with the HSI’s close of 18,382.06 last Thursday. Hong Kong’s markets were closed Friday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.37%.

Meanwhile, Gift Nifty was trading at 19,551.50 as against Nifty futures’ Friday close of 19,519.50, indicating a positive start for the Indian benchmark indices.

Also Read: Buy or sell: Vaishali Parekh recommends three stocks to buy today — 4th September

Wall Street

The US stock market ended mixed on Friday after a rise in unemployment increased expectations that the US Federal Reserve may pause interest rate hikes this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.33%, or 115.80 points, to 34,837.71, while the S&P 500 gained 0.18%, or 8.11 points, to end at 4,515.77. The Nasdaq ended 0.02%, or 3.15 point, lower at 14,031.82.

Among stocks, Tesla share price declined 5% after the electric vehicle (EV) maker cut prices for its Model S and Model X vehicles in the US.

Walt Disney shares declined 2.4% and Charter Communications dipped 3.6%, Warner Bros Discovery plunged 12%, Paramount Global slumped 9.5% and Fox Corp fell nearly 6%.

Broadcom dropped 5.5% after the chipmaker projected current-quarter revenue below expectations, while Dell Technologies surged 21% after the personal computer maker raised its annual forecasts for revenue and profit.

US markets will remain closed on Monday for a public holiday on account of Labor Day.

Also Read: Wall Street week ahead: Investors to closely watch key economic reports

US Unemployment

The US Labor Department report showed the unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% last month, from 3.5% previously, and average hourly earnings rose 4.3% from a year earlier, compared with 4.4% in July. Employers added 187,000 workers to their payrolls last month, more than they did in July, Reuters reported.

SoftBank lines up Apple, Nvidia as strategic Arm IPO backers

SoftBank Group Corp. has lined up some of Arm Ltd.’s biggest customers as strategic investors for the chip company’s initial public offering. These investors include Apple Inc., Nvidia Corp., Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Cadence Design Systems Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Synopsys Inc, Bloomberg reported quoting people familiar with the situation.

The investors will put in amounts ranging from $25 million to $100 million, the report added.

Arm IPO is expected to raise $5 billion to $7 billion, valuing the company in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion.

Morgan Stanley raises India GDP forecast

Morgan Stanley has upwardly revised their economic growth forecast for India for fiscal year 2024. The move comes after April-June quarter data showed it grew at its quickest pace in a year.

The global bank raised India’s growth forecast to 6.4% from its earlier estimate of 6.2% on robust domestic demand. 

India’s June quarter GDP growth at 7.8% beat Morgan Stanley’s expectation of 7.4%.

Crude oil hits highest since November

Crude oil prices hit its highest level since November amid expectations that supply cuts by OPEC leaders will tighten the market.

Brent crude futures rose 0.10% to $88.64 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) gained 0.22% to $85.74 a barrel.

Russia last week said that it will extend export curbs, with more details to be released in the coming days. Saudi Arabia is also expected to push its voluntary curbs into October.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Updated: 04 Sep 2023, 07:13 AM IST