Sensex, Nifty Likely To Follow Global Peers Lower

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening a tad lower on Thursday, heading into a long holiday weekend.

Continued selling by foreign investors, the impending F&O expiry and lingering uncertainty around U.S. presidential elections slated to be held on November 5 may keep investors on their toes on the last day of Samvat 2080.

Markets will remain closed on Friday on account of Diwali. However, there will be a special one-hour Muhurat trading session between 6.00 pm and 7.00 pm.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended Wednesday's session down about half a percent each, snapping a two-day winning streak. The rupee fell by 4 paise to close at 84.09 against the dollar.

Asian markets were broadly lower this morning as signs of a resilient U.S. economy prompted traders to trim bets on policy easing.

On the earnings front, Microsoft delivered solid quarterly results but forecast slower quarterly cloud revenue growth. Facebook owner Meta saw net income and revenues top expectations.

Chinese and Hong Kong markets traded higher after official manufacturing PMI beat forecasts to hit a six-month high in October.

The yen remained under pressure as investors keenly await the BoJ rate decision. Gold was marginally lower in Asian trading after having hit a new record high.

Oil prices rose, extending the previous day's rally driven by optimism over U.S. fuel demand following an unexpected drop in crude and gasoline inventories.

U.S. stocks ended firmly in the red overnight as investors reacted to mixed earnings results and economic reports.

Private-job creation jumped to its highest level in more than a year in October, while the U.S. economy grew at a slightly slower annualized rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter ahead of elections, separate set of data showed.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.6 percent, the S&P 500 dipped 0.3 percent and the Dow eased 0.2 percent.

European stocks closed lower on Wednesday as investors reacted to a fresh batch of corporate earnings, regional growth data and the U.K. Labour Party's first budget in nearly 15 years.

The pan European STOXX 600 declined 1.3 percent. The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both fell by 1.1 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 0.7 percent.