Indian stock markets open lower, trade deficit hits 5-month high, global markets mixed

Markets were trading on Friday morning with the Sensex at 62,995.93, down 78.30 points and the Nifty at 18,720.95, a loss of 32.85 points. Titan, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, HCL Tech and UltraTech Cement were the top gainers in the morning session, while Bajaj Finserv, Wipro, Bharti Airtel and TCS were among the losers.

India's trade deficit jumped to a five-month high of $22.1 billion in May from $15.2 billion in April.

Markets on Thursday

Sensex closes at 62,917.63, down 310.08 and Nifty at 18,774.45, a loss of 75.05 points. Among sectors, the banking and real estate index fell 1 percent each, while the IT index fell 0.5 percent. However, the pharma index rose 1 percent and the FMCG index rose 0.5 percent.

Global markets

U.S. stocks continued to rise on Wednesday with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq near 14-month highs as investors cheered a pause in rate hikes and the possibility that the Federal Reserve has reached the end of its rate-hiking cycle. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.26 percent to 34,408.06, the S&P 500 gained 1.22 percent to 4,425.84 and the Nasdaq closed up 1.15 percent at 13,782.82.

Asian equities were higher on Friday following the pattern of US markets, with Singapore's SGX Nifty up 41 points at 18,801, Hong Kong's Hang Seng at 19,972.43, a jump of 143.51 points and South Korea's KOSPI at 2,614.87 with gains 6.33 points. However, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 191.20 points to 33,294.29.