Opening Bell: Markets Trade Lower Amid Negative Global Cues; Sensex At 66,510.65, Nifty At 19,827.35

The markets on Thursday morning opened lower with Sensex at 66,510.65, down by 290.20 points and Nifty was at 19,827.35 with a loss of 74.05 points. Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, Titan and Axis Bank were the top gainers in the morning session, whereas HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Reliance and Maruti were among the losers.

Markets on Wednesday

The benchmark indices ended on a negative note on Wednesday with Nifty below 20,000. The 30-share BSE Sensex shed 796 points to end the day at 66,800.84 whereas the NSE Nifty went down by 231.90 points to end the day at 19,901.40.

The Nifty Bank fell by 539.25 points to 45,440.60.

Global markets

US markets closed lower on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve kept the interest rates unchanged and warned that the fight against inflation is far from over. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 76.85 points to 34,440.88, the S&P 500 dropped 41.75 points at 4,402.2 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 209.06 points at 13,469.13. Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia pulled down Nasdaq the most.

The Asian stock markets were trading lower on Thursday with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 344.14 points at 32,679.64, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 188.77 points at 17,696.83, GIFT Nifty exchange was trading slightly lower at 19,854 down by 51.50 points and South Korea's KOSPI slipped 29.08 points at 2,530.66.

Oil prices

Oil prices fell on Thursday after the US Fed decided to leave the interest rates unchanged. Brent crude futures for November lost 68 cents at $93.66 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude fell to $90.52 per barrel with a loss of 68 cents.

Rupee

The Indian rupee opened flat on Thursday morning at 83.09 per dollar against Wednesday's close of 83.07.