Opening Bell: Markets In Red; Sensex At 69,446.03, Nifty Below 20,900

The markets opened lower on Thursday with Sensex at 69,446.03, down by 207.70 points, and Nifty at 20,878.75, down by 58.95 points.

Nifty Bank in the morning session was trading lower at 46,576.15, up by 258.40 points or 0.55 per cent.

From Sensex pack, Maruti, Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, JSW Steel, and Tata Motors were the major gainers in the morning session whereas Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, and Infosys were among the major losers.

Markets on Wednesday

On Wednesday, both indices closed at a new record high. The BSE Sensex ended up 357.59 points or 0.52 percent at 69,653.73, reaching a new record high and the Nifty closed up 82.60 points or 0.4 percent at 20,937.70, achieving an all-time high. Nifty Bank fell 177.70 points to reach at 46,834.55.

Global markets

The U.S. stock market on Tuesday ended on a lower note as the S&P 500 dropped by 0.39 percent to conclude the session at 4,549.34 points. The Nasdaq fell by 0.58 percent to 14,149.71 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 0.19 percent to 36,054.43 points.

Asian markets are tradinglower on Thursday. The Japan's Nikkei 225 is down by 443.28 points, reaching 33,002.62. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 86.82 points, currently standing at 16,376.44, while South Korea's KOSPI is slightly down by 11.07 points, reaching 2,484.31. Additionally, Gifty Nifty stands at 21,049, down by 48 points.

Oil prices

In early Asian trading on Thursday, oil prices bounced back somewhat from their previous losses Brent crude futures increased by 32 cents, marking a 0.43 percent rise, reaching US dollar 74.62 per barrel by 0116 GMT. Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures saw a 0.48 percent uptick, rising 33 cents to hit US dollar 69.71 per barrel.

Rupee

The Indian Rupee opened 4 paise lower at 83.36 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday.