Sensex, Nifty Likely To Have A Cautious Opening

The domestic stock markets are likely to open on a cautious note, in line with lacklustre cues from the global market front. Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a flat opening for the index in India, with a 4-points loss. At 7:30 am, the Nifty futures were trading at 14,845, lower by four points, on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Asian shares languished near one-month lows on Wednesday as investors speculated surging commodity prices and growing inflationary pressure in the United States could lead to earlier rate hikes and higher bond yields globally.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1 per cent, after tumbling 1.6 per cent on Tuesday for its biggest daily percentage drop since March 24. Australia shares skidded 0.4 per cent, while South Korea's KOSPI index slipped 0.1 per cent.

U.S. stocks hit a one-month low on Tuesday as speculation that rising inflation pressure could prompt interest rate hikes sooner rather than later dragged on shares and hobbled the dollar, which hovered near a 2-1/2-month low.

The Nasdaq Composite ended little changed, while the Dow Jones dropped 1.4 per cent. The S&P 500 fell 0.9 per cent, off a one-month low struck earlier Tuesday.

Meanwhile, oil prices rose on Tuesday, as lingering fears of gasoline shortages due to the outage at the largest U.S. fuel pipeline system after a cyber attack brought futures back from an early drop of more than 1 per cent.

Brent crude futures rose 35 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $68.67 a barrel by 1:43 p.m. EDT (1743 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 49 cents, or 0.8 per cent, to $65.41.

On the corporate earnings front, Asian Paints, Lupin, UPL, Apollo Tyres and Tata Power will declare their Q4 numbers during the day.

On Tuesday, the BSE Sensex had declined 340.60 points to close at 49,161.81 and the Nifty had slipped 91.60 points to 14,850.80.