SGX Nifty down 50 points; here's what changed for market while you were sleeping

Equity markets ended higher for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, tracking strong trends in global markets. On Thursday, markets will likely react to the Fed's decision to hike the policy rate by 25 bps.

"Fed’s comments and their plans to deal with current financial turmoil will hold importance. It will be interesting to see how the committee plans to manage the liquidity crisis within the banking sector, while continuing its fight against inflation," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Here's breaking down the pre-market actions:

STATE OF THE MARKETS

SGX Nifty50 signals a negative start
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 47 points or 0.27% lower at 17,111, signalling a negative start for Dalal Street.

• Tech View: Nifty remains in a buy-on-dip mode as long as the index stays above 17,000. The immediate hurdle on the upside is at 17,200 where the highest open interest is built up on the call side. The index once surpassed the resistance will witness a sharp move on the upside toward the 17,500 level.

• India VIX: India VIX, which is a measure of the fear in the markets, fell 1.82% to settle at 14.80 levels.

Asian markets under pressure
Asian stocks struggled Thursday in the wake of a slump on Wall Street after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen rattled bank shares and the Federal Reserve pushed back against bets for interest rate cuts this year. Benchmark indexes fell in Japan, South Korea and Australia while a gauge of US-listed Chinese companies fell earlier. Weakness in the dollar may help some assets in Asia, particularly in emerging markets.

• Japan’s Topix fell 1%
• South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.7%
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.9%
• Hang Seng Index futures rose 0.8%

Wall Street ends sharply lower
Wall Street gyrated to end sharply lower on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a widely expected 25 basis point policy hike, while hinting that it was on the verge of pausing future increases in view of recent turmoil in the financial sector.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.63%
• S&P 500 lost 1.65%
• Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.6%

Dollar slips as Fed outlook shifts
The dollar was under pressure near seven-week lows on Thursday as U.S. bond yields fell sharply after the Federal Reserve sounded close to calling time on interest rate hikes.

• Euro rose 0.2% to $1.0873
• Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 131.17 per dollar
• Offshore yuan was little changed at 6.8581 per dollar
• Australian dollar rose 0.2% to $0.6698

Oil prices fall
Oil prices fell on Thursday following three sessions of gains, after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell re-stated his commitment to curbing inflation, including the possibility of more interest rate rises.

Brent crude futures fell 80 cents, or 1%, to $75.89 a barrel by 00:09 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) dropped 84 cents, or 1.2%, to $70.06. Both crude benchmarks had settled on Wednesday at their highest close since March 14.

Stocks in F&O ban today
1) Indiabulls Housing Finance
2) Biocon

Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit.

FII/DII action
After relentless selling for the past few days, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have turned marginal net buyers at Rs 61.72 crore Wednesday. DIIs, on the other hand, too bought shares worth Rs 383 crore.

Rupee
The Indian rupee closed largely flat at 82.66 per dollar, as investors were wary ahead of a pivotal US Federal Reserve bank meeting decision due amid a banking sector crisis.

IPO Watch
The initial public offering (IPO) of Udayshivakumar Infra was subscribed 5.15 times on Day 3. The issue will be available for subscription till March 23. The company has fixed a price band of Rs 33-35 per share and investors can bid for 428 shares in 1 lot and in multiples thereof.

US Fed policy
Markets will likely react to the US Federal Reserve policy outcome. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, but indicated it was on the verge of pausing further increases in borrowing costs amid recent turmoil in financial markets spurred by the collapse of two U.S. banks.