Shares may advance on positive global signals

Market is seen opening higher tracking positive leads from Asian markets and overnight gains on the Wall Street. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 56 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, stocks in Asia gained Friday despite fresh overnight uncertainties about US-China trade negotiations. In Japan, core consumer prices in Tokyo, a leading indicator of nationwide price trends, rose 1.1% in January from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday.

In US, stocks closed mostly higher Thursday as investors digested a tide of corporate earnings while monitoring US-China trade talks and a long-running US government shutdown -- all amid worries over the health of the global economy.

In Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to maintain interest rates at 0% as expected on Thursday, but President Mario Draghi warned that growth risks in the region had shifted to the downside due to a number of external factors.

On the US data front, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell below 200,000 for the first time in nearly 50 years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Further, the Conference Board's leading economic index fell 0.1% in December.

Private-sector activity continued to expand in January but at a more moderate pace compared with the same time last year, according to flash purchasing managers index data compiled by Markit. The manufacturing index rose to 54.9 from 53.8 in December, while the services gauge slipped to 54.2 from 54.4. A figure above 50 signifies growth in activity.

Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 94.45 crore on 24 January 2019, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 389.96 crore on 24 January 2019, as per provisional data.

Local stocks ended with modest gains on Thursday, 24 January 2019, after trading in a narrow range for most part of trading session. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 86.63 points or 0.24% to settle at 36,195.10. The Nifty 50 index rose 18.30 points or 0.17% to settle at 10,849.80.

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