Summary: Developments in the US-China trade dialogues, corporate earnings and inflation data for April will guide investment sentiment this week. Besides, crude oil prices and movement of rupee against the US dollar will also be closely tracked. The S&P BSE Sensex ended 96 points, or 0.26 per cent, lower at 37,463 levels on Friday. The broader index Nifty50 gave up the crucial 11,300 mark and slipped 23 points, or 0.20 per cent, at 11,279. On a weekly basis, the Sensex lost 3.8 per cent while Nifty shed 3.6 per cent. The rupee closed at Rs 69.91 per dollar on Friday. Q4 RESULTS AND CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT More than 400 companies are scheduled to declare their March quarter earnings for the financial year 2018-19 this week. Of these, HDFC, Idea, ITC, Zee Media, Bajaj Finance and Muthoot Finance will be in focus. This apart, all eyes will be on L&T's open offer for Mindtree. Market regulator Sebi is yet to give its nod to the open offer that was set to commence on May 14. If it doesn't give its approval to the company, the open offer cannot start. LOK SABHA ELECTIONS Lok Sabha polls will continue to dominate investors' thinking. While 59 Lok Sabha constituencies voted on May 12, the last phase will take place on May 19. The votes will be counted on May 23. GLOBAL CUES US stock futures fell and Asian shares slipped in early trade on Monday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.2 per cent, nearing its two-month low marked on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei average sunk as much as 1 per cent to hit its lowest level since March 28. US President Donald Trump tweeted late on Sunday that the United States was “right where we want to be with China,” adding that Beijing “broke the deal” and then sought to renegotiate. The US indices closed in the green on Friday. BRENT CRUDE Oil futures edged down on Monday, pressured by fears over global economic growth amid a standoff in Sino-US trade talks. Brent crude futures were at $70.49 a barrel at 5:43 am, down 0.2 per cent, from their last close.
