Sensex, Nifty Seen Lower On Wall Street Selloff

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open lower on Wednesday after Wall Street's major averages suffered their deepest declines so far this month overnight.

The downside, if any, may remain capped by upbeat updates from Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft after the U.S. market close.

Meanwhile, Indian banks appear well-placed to handle any stress arising from the ongoing monetary policy tightening cycle and the recent collapses of a few banks in the U.S. and Europe, the Ministry of Finance sand in its monthly review report.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended Tuesday's lackluster session marginally higher. The rupee settled on a flat note at 81.92 against the greenback.

Asian stocks were seeing modest losses this morning, while the dollar steadied after climbing higher overnight on concerns about the U.S. banking sector's health.

Gold traded firm around the $2,000 per ounce level, while oil prices were little changed after having dipped around 2 percent overnight on demand worries.

U.S. stocks fell the most in a month overnight and benchmark Treasury yields dropped as soft economic data and disappointing earnings updates from the likes of First Republic and UPS stoked recession fears.

A measure of U.S. consumer confidence hit a nine-month low, and the Richmond Fed manufacturing index showed contraction for a fourth straight month while new home sales unexpectedly spiked to their highest level in a year in March, separate reports showed.

The Dow lost 1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2 percent and the S&P 500 shed 1.6 percent.

European stocks fell for a second day on Tuesday as investors reacted to banking sector woes and awaited mega tech earnings.

The pan European STOXX 600 fell 0.4 percent, dragged down by miners and banks.

The German DAX inched up marginally, while France's CAC 40 gave up 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 dipped 0.3 percent.