Indian stock market: 8 key things that changed for market overnight – Gift Nifty, US Fed minutes to China lending rates

Indian stock market: The domestic equity benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, are expected to open lower on Thursday amid mixed cues from global markets.

Asian markets traded lower, while the US stock market ended modestly higher, with the S&P 500 closing at all-time high.

On Wednesday, the Indian stock market ended the volatile session with minor losses.

The Sensex fell 28.21 points, or 0.04%, to close at 75,939.18, while the Nifty 50 settled 12.40 points, or 0.05%, lower at 22,932.90.

“We expect the market to continue trading in a range-bound manner, tracking the global market cues, Trump’s tariff policies and political developments in the Russia-Ukraine war,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Here are key global market cues for Sensex today:

Asian Markets

Asian markets traded lower on Thursday as US President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs and caution in Federal Reserve meeting minutes dented sentiment.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.79%, while the Topix index declined 0.67%. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.18% lower, while the Kosdaq rose 0.32%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures indicated a slightly higher opening.

Gift Nifty Today

Gift Nifty was trading around 22,914 level, a discount of nearly 50 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close, indicating a negative start for the Indian stock market indices.

Wall Street

US stock market ended higher on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 notching its second straight all-time closing high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 71.25 points, or 0.16%, to 44,627.59, while the S&P 500 rose 14.57 points, or 0.24%, to 6,144.15. The Nasdaq Composite closed 14.99 points, or 0.07%, higher at 20,056.25.

Tesla stock price gained 1.82% and Microsoft shares advanced 1.25%. Nikola share price plunged 39.1% after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Celanese shares tumbled 21.5%, while Shift4 stock price declined 17.5%. Global Blue stock jumped 17.5% and Analog Devices shares rallied 9.7%.

US Fed Minutes

Federal Reserve officials in January expressed their readiness to hold interest rates steady amid stubborn inflation and economic-policy uncertainty.

“Participants indicated that, provided the economy remained near maximum employment, they would want to see further progress on inflation before making additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate,” minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s Jan. 28-29 meeting showed.

RBI Bulletin

The Indian economy is likely to get a boost from rural demand picking up and a government-announced tax relief that is expected to support urban consumption, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its monthly bulletin.

The central bank’s internal models, based on high-frequency data, suggest growth improving to 6.6% in the January-March quarter this year. “Domestic demand is also expected to benefit from the repo rate cut by the Monetary Policy Committee,” the report added.

China Loan Prime Rates

China left benchmark lending rates unchanged at the monthly fixing. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was kept at 3.10%, while the five-year LPR was unchanged at 3.60%. In a Reuters poll of 30 market participants conducted this week, all of them expected no changes to either of the two rates.

US Housing Starts

US single-family homebuilding fell sharply in January. Single-family housing starts dropped 8.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 993,000 units last month. Single-family starts declined 1.8% year-on-year.

Gold Prices

Gold prices slipped after hitting a record high earlier as the dollar rose. Spot gold fell 0.2% to $2,928.49 per ounce. Bullion surged to an all-time high of $2,946.85 per ounce earlier. US gold futures settled 0.4% lower at $2,936.10.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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