Sensex, Nifty Set For Sluggish Start After Fed Minutes

(RTTNews) - Indian shares may follow global peers lower on Thursday after the July FOMC meeting minutes signaled that restrictive rates may be needed "for some time".

Telecom stocks could be in focus as investors react to monthly subscriber data released by TRAI.

IT stocks may also see significant activity following reports that Wipro has decided to pause variable pay-outs for the April-June quarter for mid and senior-level employees amid significant pressure on margins.

Trading may turn volatile later in the day amid the expiry of weekly futures & options contracts.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty jumped around 0.7 percent each on Wednesday to extend gains for a fourth straight session, while the rupee climbed 29 paise to close at 79.45 against the dollar on persistent foreign fund inflows.

Asian markets traded mostly lower this morning, the dollar index gave up some of its overnight gains and gold traded slightly higher while oil fluctuated after ending sharply higher in the U.S. trading session on data showing declines in crude and gasoline inventories in the U.S.

U.S. stocks fell overnight as retail sales came in flat in July, discount retailer Target's second-quarter earnings fell short of twice-lowered views and minutes from the Federal Reserve's meeting in July suggested policymakers are less likely to step away from hiking rates until inflation declined substantially.

The Dow dipped half a percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gave up 1.3 percent and the S&P 500 shed 0.7 percent.

European stocks snapped a five-day winning streak on Wednesday after the release of U.K. inflation as well as Q2 GDP and unemployment figures for the single currency bloc.

The pan European Stoxx 600 declined 0.9 percent. The German DAX lost 2 percent, France's CAC 40 index declined 1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 eased 0.3 percent.