Indian stock market: The Indian equity market indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, are expected to open higher amid cautiousness on Thursday following mixed global market cues.
Asian markets traded lower, while the US stock market ended mixed overnight after the announcement of the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision.
The US Fed kept the benchmark interest rates unchanged but did acknowledge its disappointment over the “lack of further progress" in pushing inflation down to its 2% target.
The Fed Chair Jerome Powell also downplayed the possibility of interest-rate hikes and the Federal Reserve said it will shrink its balance sheet at a slower pace to ease strains in money markets.
On Tuesday, the Indian stock market benchmark indices gave up day’s gains to end in the negative territory due to fag-end selloff.
The Sensex declined 188.50 points, or 0.25%, to close at 74,482.78, while the Nifty 50 settled 38.55 points, or 0.17%, lower at 22,604.85.
“We expect the market to continue its positive momentum supported by healthy Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) and retail buying and going Q4 result season," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
The Indian stock market was closed on May 1 on account of Maharashtra Day.
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Here are key global market cues for Sensex today:
Asian markets traded lower on Thursday tracking overnight moves on Wall Street after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 0.70%, while the Topix fell 0.4%. South Korea’s Kospi eased 0.1% and Kosdaq dropped 0.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures indicated a weak opening.
Gift Nifty was trading around the 22,745 level, a premium of nearly 30 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close, indicating a positive start for the Indian stock market indices.
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The US stock market ended mixed on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 87.37 points, or 0.23%, to 37,903.29, while the S&P 500 fell 17.3 points, or 0.34%, to 5,018.39. The Nasdaq Composite ended 52.34 points, or 0.33%, lower at 15,605.48.
Among stocks, Amazon share price gained 2.2%, while Johnson & Johnson shares rallied 4.6%. Starbucks shares tumbled 15.9% and CVS Health shares declined 16.8%. Advanced Micro Devices shares plunged 9%, while Super Micro Computer shares tanked 14.0.
The US Federal Reserve kept the benchmark interest rates unchanged in the range of 5.25% - 5.50% for the sixth straight meeting, in line with Wall Street estimates. The Fed signaled it is still leaning towards eventual reductions in borrowing costs, but put a red flag on recent disappointing inflation readings and suggested a possible stall in the movement towards more balance in the economy.
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US job openings fell to a three-year low in March, while the number of people quitting their jobs declined. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report from the Labor Department showed job openings, a measure of labor demand, were down 325,000 to 8.488 million on the last day of March, the lowest level since February 2021. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 8.686 million job openings.
US Treasury yields fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady but signaled that it still plans to cut interest rates at some point.
The benchmark 10-year yield fell 5 basis points (bps) to 4.63%, while the two-year yields slid 8.2 bps to 4.96%.
The US dollar index slid and the yen jumped over 3% against the American currency. The yen strengthened to 153.04 per dollar from around 157.58 in New York overnight, later falling back to 155.79 on Thursday morning. The US dollar Index was down 0.58% at 105.71.
Crude oil prices rose after sinking to a seven-week low, snapping three days of losses.
Brent crude futures for July gained 0.3% to $83.65 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for June rose 0.3% to $79.22 a barrel. Both benchmarks fell more than 3% on Wednesday to a seven-week low.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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