Sensex, Nifty Set For Weak Start As Tariff Worries Persist

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set for a muted start on Thursday due to prevailing uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies and ongoing FII selling.

The downside, however, may remain limited after Nvidia forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates. CEO Jensen Huang said demand for their Blackwell chips has been "amazing".

Indian markets were closed on Wednesday in observance of Mahashivratri. On Tuesday, benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended on a flat note after a sharp decline over the last five trading sessions.

The rupee fell by 51 paise to close at 87.2 per U.S. dollar, marking its sharpest decline in three weeks, driven by importer hedging and dollar demand linked to the expiry of non-deliverable forward (NDF) contracts.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of shares worth Rs 3,529 crore on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors were net buyers of shares worth approximately Rs 3,031 crore, as per provisional data.

Asian markets clung to modest gains this morning even as Chinese and Hong Kong stocks slipped into the red after sharp gains in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar strengthened past an 11-week low while oil and gold prices were little changed.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight after President Trump threatened to slap 25 percent tariff on imports from the European Union and indicated that the effective date of the levies on imports from Mexico and Canada could be pushed back from March 4th to April 2nd, the same day he purportedly plans to announce reciprocal tariffs on other U.S. trade partners.

The S&P 500 ended marginally higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up by 0.3 percent to snap four-session losing streaks as chip stocks rebounded ahead of AI darling Nvidia's results. The narrower Dow dipped 0.4 percent after two straight days of slight gains.

European stocks closed at a record high on Wednesday after Ukraine and the U.S. agreed on draft minerals deal.

The pan European STOXX 600 jumped 1 percent. The German DAX rallied 1.7 percent, France's CAC 40 surged 1.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.7 percent.