As Fed holds key rate after 15 months, 10 things to know before opening bell on D-Street

Indian equity benchmarks NSE Nifty50 and BSE Sensex are expected to begin Thursday’s session on a muted note, tracking mixed cues from other major markets around the globe after the US Fed FOMC, though paused the rate hike cycle for the moment, however, expects two rate hikes by this year-end.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said, “Investors would take cues from the outcome US Fed meeting on policy rate and Fed Chair’s commentary would hold importance. Also, on Thursday ECB and the Bank of Japan would come out with a policy decision.”

“The recent recovery in the Nifty lacks decisiveness due to underperformance from the banking index and this divergence may end soon,” Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research, Religare Broking said and advised to stay selective and prefer sectors/stocks that are attracting consistent buying interest. 

Stay tuned on Zeebiz.com to find out what could impact your trade today. We have collated a list of the top 10 things to know that could impact the market:

• SGX Nifty futures: SGX Nifty futures — an early indicator of the Nifty index — were down 22 points or 0.12 per cent at 18,813 at the last count ahead of the opening bell on Dalal Street.
• Asian markets: Equities in other major Asian markets began the day on a mixed note, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rising over 1 per cent in early hours. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.1 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite up 0.3 surge and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up around 1.5 per cent, but South Korea’s KOSPI down 0.1 per cent today.
• Wall Street: Overnight in the US, the three main indices ended mixed on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept U.S. interest rates unchanged but signaled in new economic projections that borrowing costs will likely rise by another half of a percentage point by the end of this year.
• Rupee vs dollar: The rupee gained 15 paise to settle at 82.10 against the US dollar on Wednesday, helped by robust macro fundamentals, FII inflows and a weak greenback against major rivals overseas.
• Dollar index: The U.S. dollar slid on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, as expected, but signaled that borrowing costs will increase by another 50 basis points (bps) by end-December.
• Crude oil: Crude oil prices fell 1.5% on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve projected more interest rate hikes this year, worrying markets about demand just hours after government data showed an unexpected, large build in U.S. crude oil stocks.
• US Fed pauses rate hike: The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday but signaled in new projections that borrowing costs may still need to rise by as much as half of a percentage point by the end of this year, as the U.S. central bank reacted to a stronger-than-expected economy and a slower decline in inflation.
• BSE sells stake in CDSL: Leading stock exchange BSE on Wednesday divested a 4.5 per cent stake in Central Depository Services Ltd for Rs 468 crore through an open market transaction. BSE offloaded 47,44,000 shares, amounting to a 4.5 per cent stake in Central Depository Services (India) Ltd.
• India to soon overtake China as oil demand driver: India will soon overtake China as the largest driver of global oil demand even as it has an opportunity to become a world leader in green hydrogen production, International Energy Agency (IEA) chief Fatih Birol said Wednesday.
• FII, DII flow: Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,714.72 crore worth of Indian shares on Wednesday, according to provisional exchange data. Net sales by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) stood at Rs 654.77 crore.

(With inputs from agencies)