Markets may edge lower in opening trades tracking weak global markets as investors turned cautious ahead of United States jobs data. The Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange declined 27 points, at 5,030.
In Asia, most of the indices were trading in the negative led by selling in technology and resource shares. The Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1%, China’s Shanghai Composite was down 1%, South Korea's Kospi was off 1% and the Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average slipped 1.1%.
Overnight Wall Street indices snapped the five day winning streak and ended in the red as investors were hesitant to take new positions ahead of the monthly jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell over 1% each.
Back in India, markets may remain under pressure as food inflation rose to 10.05%, highest in six months and fuel price index climbed to 12.55% in the year ended August 20. There are expectations that the Reserve Bank of India may hike interest rates by another 25 bps as inflation scaled to double digits.
From the auto stocks Hero Motocorp posted 19 percent y-o-y increase in auto sales for August. Tata Motors posted a 3% y-o-y decline and Maruti Suzki sales fell 13%. On Thursday, exports surged 82% and imports rose 51.5%, and the trade deficit stood at $11.1 billion for the month of July.
