Sensex, Nifty Set To Drift Lower In Cautious Trade

Indian shares look set to open a tad lower on Friday as investors wait to see whether the Centre will extend the lockdown by another two weeks after May 31.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday night spoke to all chief ministers and sought their opinion on the extension of the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

With 6,566 more coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, confirmed Covid-19 cases in India stand at 1,58,333. The death toll from the outbreak is at 4,531.

Benchmark indexes jumped around 2 percent on Thursday to extend gains from the previous session as traders covered their short positions on eve of F&O derivatives expiry. The rupee ended down 5 paise at 75.76 against the dollar.

Asian markets are moving lower in cautious trade this morning after China's parliament approved the controversial security law on Hong Kong, undermining the city's reputation as a financial hub with substantial autonomy.

The dollar moved in a narrow range and gold ticked up, while oil edged lower on data showing that U.S. crude oil and distillate inventories rose sharply last week.

U.S. stocks gave up early gains to end lower overnight after President Donald Trump said he would hold a news conference about China on Friday, with investors speculating he may impose mild new sanctions on visas and Chinese access to the global financial system.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.6 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped half a percent and the S&P 500 eased 0.2 percent.

European markets extended gains for the fourth day running on Thursday, with growing enthusiasm over the resumption of economic activity, the recently proposed EU stimulus package and fairly encouraging jobless claims data from the U.S. helping underpin sentiment.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.6 percent. The German DAX advanced 1.1 percent, France's CAC 40 index surged 1.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 1.2 percent.