GIFT NIFTY futures hint weak opening on October 8; key things to know before stock market opens

The benchmark Indian stock market indices are set to open marginally lower on Thursday, October 8, as indicated by the NIFTY futures trading at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, with investors focusing on foreign investor outflows, US Treasury yields near multi-year highs, and elevated oil prices in the global market.

The GIFT NIFTY futures were trading 0.15% higher at 22,592 points as of 7:40 am (IST), indicating a marginally lower opening when compared to the previous close of the benchmark NIFTY50 index.

NSE data showed that the NIFTY50 index ended 0.76% or 173.05 points lower at 22,603.05 after the trading session on Wednesday, in comparison to 22,776.10 points at the previous equity market close.

Meanwhile, the BSE SENSEX index closed 0.59% or 429.11 points lower at the 72,638.70 level after the market session on October 7, compared to 73,067.81 points at the previous equity market close, as per the exchange data.

Both the benchmark indices were subject to selling pressure on Wednesday's market against the backdrop of the Reserve Bank of India’s pivot to a rate-hike strategy after the central bank raised its key interest rates by 25 basis points to 5.50% through the October policy meeting.

Data showed that foreign investors continued their selling trend in the Indian stock market, with FIIs selling around ₹6,121.37 crore worth of capital market assets in a single day, while domestic investors failed to support the fall of the benchmark indices.

Investors are expected to focus on the subdued sentiment emerging from Asian markets, along with the elevated global bond yields and weakness in the Indian rupee, which further adds to the downward momentum cues on Thursday’s market.

TCS’s earnings will remain in focus of equity market investors as the IT bellwether stock is set to kick off the Q2 earnings season for FY27 today.

Key things to know before market open

Asian markets today

The equity market indices in Asia were trading in the red zone on Thursday, with investors focusing on the rebound in crude oil prices, elevated yields in fixed income assets, and the weak momentum from Wall Street’s negative close the previous day.

MarketWatch data showed that the Nikkei 225 was down 0.80%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.04%, China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.04%, South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.62%, and Singapore’s FTSE was down 2.3% on October 8.

The rising bond yields and the situation of global economic tightening are resulting in investors shifting their investments to other safe-haven assets, likely pulling out funds from emerging markets into US Treasuries and the benchmark dollar.

Oil near $102/barrel

After last week’s pullback to $95 per barrel (bbl) levels, global crude oil prices have rebounded to the tune of nearly $104 per bbl earlier this week due to fears of a potential second wave of supply chain disruption, frequent attacks in the Strait of Hormuz amid no signs of a potential peace deal in the West Asia region.

Investing.com data showed that the benchmark Brent crude oil prices were trading 1.64% higher at $101.82 per bbl during the early market hours, India time, in comparison to $100 per bbl at the previous commodity market close.

The data further showed that the global energy prices have risen more than 30% in the last three months, and nearly 4% in the past one-month, in turn adding to the dented sentiment for all oil-sensitive sectors in the equity market around the world.

Latest media reports suggest that the United States has set new demands for the Iran deal, with US Vice President JD Vance calling for a “meaningful” reduction in uranium enrichment capacity of the West Asian country to potentially end the conflict with the United States.

“If you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance told the news agency Reuters.

Bond yields

The benchmark India 10-year bond yields ended at 7.24% after rising 5 basis points intraday as investors react to RBI’s latest policy action and the shift of stance to ‘calibrated tightening’ from earlier ‘neutral’ levels.

As the central bank aims to counter price pressure and increasing inflation in the Indian economy, rising interest rates are expected to bring higher yields amid the risk of a longer period of inflation in the country.

This comes against the backdrop of the recent multi-year high and elevated US Treasury yields. Data also showed that the 10-year US Treasury yield was at 5.30% as of the market close on October 7.

US market snapshot

The US equity indices ended lower after the trading session on Wednesday, October 7, as investors focused on the weak global market cues amid rising oil prices to $102 per barrel levels and elevated Treasury yields.

Data showed that the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.66% lower at 51,179.87 points after the trading session on Wednesday, in comparison to 51,521.28 points at the previous US stock market close.

The S&P 500 index closed 0.22% lower at 7,801.77 points after Wednesday’s trading session, compared to 7,818,93 points at the previous market close.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 also ended 0.21% lower at 31,160.08 points after the trading session on October 7, in contrast to 31,224.69 points at the previous Wall Street close, as per the exchange data.