Sensex, Nifty Poised For Firm Opening

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening a tad higher on Wednesday, mirroring firm cues from global markets and amid hopes for a rate cut by the RBI next week.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty rose around 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively on Tuesday after two straight sessions of losses.

The rupee fell by 18 paise to 86.52 per dollar, marking its largest single-day fall in two weeks, as the RBI's decision to increase liquidity in the banking system spurred hopes for a rate cut at the February monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting.

In Asia, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand shares rose this morning while most other markets were closed for Lunar New Year holidays.

Gold was marginally higher above $2,765 per ounce as investors await interest-rate decisions from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

Oil prices were little changed as fears of Libyan supply disruption eased and the American Petroleum Institute reported a smaller-than-expected increase in weekly U.S. crude stockpiles.

U.S. stocks ended higher overnight, tentatively recovering from the previous day's tech slump following DeepSeek's sudden burst onto the AI scene.

In economic releases, durable goods orders fell 2.2 percent in December while consumer confidence has declined for the second month in January, separate reports showed.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 2 percent, the S&P 500 climbed 0.9 percent and the Dow edged up 0.3 percent as focus shifted to upcoming mega-cap earnings and the Fed meeting.

European stocks climbed to a record high on Tuesday as global markets recovered from a tech selloff.

The pan European STOXX 600 rose 0.4 percent. The German DAX gained 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.4 percent while France's CAC 40 slipped 0.1 percent.