Nifty futures up; China data, Greek fears drag down Asia

Hong Kong: Asian markets are off to a nervous start this morning, but the Indian market is poised for a positive start, going by early trades on the Nifty futures.

As at 7.30 am IST, Nifty futures are up nearly six-tenths of 1 percent, and although they’re coming off an earlier high in the morning, they’re still the outperformers in the region.

[caption id=“attachment_319512” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Nifty futures are up nearly six-tenths of 1 percent, and although they’re coming off an earlier high in the morning, they’re still the outperformers in the region”]  [/caption]

Elsewhere across Asia, markets are generally weak in volatile early trades, with investors parsing the details of the European summit overnight for clues to what lies ahead. As at 7.30 am IST, indices are see-sawing wildly, although the trend is largely negative. Manufacturing data out of China came in lower than expected, and could drag down markets for the rest of the day.

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Overnight, markets in Europe had a brutal day, down sharply as they braced for bad news; the euro too plunged against the US dollar. That effect was felt across the pond on Wall Street as well, where indices where down sharply for much of the day, before seeing a last-gasp recovery to finish about flat.

Investors seemed to have drawn some solace from the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, although it doesn’t appear to have achieved anything of substance.

Back home, yesterday’s hike in fuel prices has revived hopes that the government may be ready to take some painful but necessary steps towards addressing structural infirmities in the Indian economy. The buzz has it that the government, now assured of a reasonable level of political stability, is looking to fast-track some reform initiatives, particularly those intended to signal to foreign investors that India is open for business.

The rupee remains on top of the mind, and evidently policymakers too are focussed on it. There isn’t much that the RBI can do to support it, and only meaningful policy action from the government can restore faith in the rupee. If the government follows through on yesterday’s bold move, we could see some retracing of the ground that the rupee lost. For today, however, the dollar index is up a tick, which perhaps signals a slightly weaker rupee.

We’re likely to see a mildly positive start to trading today, although overseas cues are very weak.