GIFT NIFTY hints at gap down opening as crude hovers $115 per barrel

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to stage a gap down opening on Thursday, October 29, as indicated by GIFT NIFTY futures. NIFTY futures traded at GIFT City in Gandhinagar dropped 96 points to 22,682 as Brent crude futures hovered around $115 per barrel amid mixed cues from Asian markets.

The Indian equity market indices, NIFTY50 and SENSEX, ended lower after the trading session on Wednesday, October 28, as investors focused on crude oil prices surpassing $116 per barrel (bbl), massive selling pressure in IT stocks and other heavyweights bringing down the benchmark indices.

NIFTY50 index ended 0.2% or 50 points lower at 22,698.85 points after the trading session on Wednesday, in comparison to 22,749.75 points at the previous equity market close.

Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.32%, China's Shanghai Composite index declined 0.62%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.2% and South Korea's KOSPI index dropped 2.13%.

Hefty cash burn from Alphabet sent its shares 10% lower in after-hours trading, wiping nearly $400 billion off its market value. That drove Nasdaq futures 1% lower. Microsoft, by contrast, beat forecasts with better-than-expected cash flows that lifted its shares by 3%, the report added.

Overnight, Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19%, S&P 500 index gained 0.28% and Nasdaq rose 0.27%.

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth ₹871.83 crore and domestic institutional investors purchased shares worth ₹643.35 crore on Wednesday.

As per the BSE list, 150 companies are slated to announce their September quarter results today.

The list includes Asian Paints, Coal India (CIL), Trent Ltd, InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo), Laurus Labs, Ambuja Cements, Godrej Consumer Products, Welspun Corp and Apar Industries.

Other companies scheduled to announce their results include Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL), Suzlon Energy, Milky Mist Dairy Food, MTAR Technologies, Firstsource Solutions, Deepak Nitrite, Vedanta Power, Vedanta Oil and Gas, and Computer Age Management Services (CAMS), among others.