The markets on Thursday morning opened lower with Sensex at 65,461.42, down by 78 points and Nifty was at 19,426.85 with a loss of 38.15 points. NTPC, Asian Paints, Mahindra and Mahindra, Titan and State Bank of India were the top gainers in the morning session, whereas ITC, Hindustan Unilever, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement and Tata Motors were among the losers.
Markets on Wednesday
The benchmark indices ended on a positive note on Wednesday after it opened in red. The Sensex was up 137.50 points and ended the day at 65,539.42 and the Nifty was up 30.45 points at 19,465. Nifty Bank slipped 144.55 points at 43,946.40.
Global markets
US markets closed lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's minutes showed a division in central bank officials over the need to hike interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 180.65 point at 34,765.74, the S&P 500 closed 33.53 point lower at 4,404.33 and Nasdaq Composite fell 156.42 per cent at 13,474.63.
The Asian stock markets continued a downward trend on Thursday with South Korea's KOSPI losing 22.91 points at 2,502.73, GIFT Nifty exchange dropped 14.50 points to trade at 19,397.50, Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 389.88 points at 31,376.94 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 287.34 points to 18,041.96.
Oil prices
Oil prices fell on Thursday morning amid fears of slow economic growth in China and the possibility of further interest rate hike in the US impacting demand. Brent crude futures for October shed 73 cents to $83.08 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude fell to $78.99 per barrel, down by 39 cents.
The government on Monday hiked special additional excise duty on crude petroleum to Rs 7,100 per tonne with effect from August 15. Besides, the Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) or duty on export of diesel will be hiked to Rs 5.50 per litre from Re 1 per litre at present.
A duty of Rs 2 per litre will be imposed on jet fuel or ATF with effect from August 15. Currently, there is no SAED on the jet fuel.
Rupee
Indian currency markets were shut on Wednesday on the occasion of Parsi New Year. The Indian rupee opened lower on Thursday morning at 83 per dollar against Monday's close of 82.95.
