US markets mixed over weak retail sales data, S&P 500 trades flat-to-positive; GIFT Nifty up

Global Markets Outlook

The US markets traded mixed on June 18 owing to weak retail sales data. During May, retail sales increased 0.1 percent, as against the Dow Jones’ prediction of 0.2 percent. On a year-on-year basis, sales rose 2.3 percent.

At 9:15 pm IST, the S&P 500 hovered close to its record high and traded flat-to-positive at 5,478. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was marginally up 0.03 percent at 38,790. However, the Nasdaq Composite traded flat-to-negative at 17,845.

The GIFT Nifty rose 0.29 percent to 23,660 after the Indian indices witnessed a bullish run earlier during the day.

Indian indices rallied to new highs for a fourth day in a row, on the back of PowerGrid Corp and Titan stocks’ strong performance. Nifty created a fresh 52-week high of 23,579.05 during intraday trade and ended 0.30 percent higher at 23,557.90. The Sensex hit a new high of 77,366.77 during intraday and ended 0.40 percent higher at 77,301.14.

The European markets recovered from the previous day’s losses and edged higher on June 18. The FTSE surged 0.60 percent higher to 8,191.29 and the DAX was up 0.31 percent at 18,123.58. The CAC also edged 0.76 percent higher to 7,628.80.

Earlier during the day, the Asian markets ended mixed. Nikkei surged 1 percent to 38,482.11 while the Hang Seng declined 0.11 percent to 17,915.55.

DIIs net purchased Rs 1,555.73 crores in Indian equities and the FIIs/FPIs net bought Rs 2,569.40 crores.

Crude rose for the second day in a row, up 1.10 percent at $81.21. Brent also edged 0.83 percent to $84.95.