Sensex, Nifty Seen Tad Higher At Open

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening a tad higher on Tuesday after two straight sessions of losses.

That said, a cautious undertone may prevail amid concerns that the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model would threaten the dominance of AI leaders like Nvidia.

Tariff worries may also weigh on sentiment after U.S. President Donald Trump said he'll soon impose tariffs on foreign-produced semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and some metals in a push to increase U.S. production of the products.

In another major development, the U.S. Senate has confirmed Scott Bessent as the new Treasury Secretary under President Trump. He is pushing for new universal tariffs on U.S. imports to start at 2.5 percent and rise gradually.

Closer home, benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty fell over 1 percent each on Monday to extend losses for a second straight session, pressured by weak corporate earnings, uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade and tariff policies, and persistent foreign fund outflows.

The rupee fell by 11 paise to close at 86.33 (provisional) against the greenback.

The Reserve Bank of India on Monday announced several measures that will help inject over INR 1 trillion liquidity into the banking system, a move many observers interpreted as paving the way for policy easing on February 7.

The central bank said it will purchase government securities worth INR 600 billion through open market operations purchase auctions in three tranches on January 30, February 13 and February 20.

The central bank also revealed a 56-day variable rate repo auction for INR 500 billion to be held on February 7 and announced USD/INR Buy/Sell swap auction of USD 5 billion for a tenor of six months. This will be held on January 31.

Asian markets traded mixed this morning, with China and South Korea shut for the Lunar New Year holidays.

The dollar index climbed in Asian trade and Treasury yields ticked higher ahead of upcoming Fed and ECB meetings.

Gold held steady while oil prices edged up slightly after sinking by 2 percent on Monday.

U.S. stocks ended lower overnight, with technology stocks coming under heavy selling pressure as DeepSeek's technological breakthrough cast doubt on Silicon Valley's hefty AI capex spending and the sustainability of the U.S. technical edge in artificial intelligence.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 3.1 percent, while the Dow dipped 0.7 percent and the S&P 500 shed 1.5 percent.

European stocks ended little changed on Monday as gains in defensive stocks offset losses in the technology sector.

The pan European STOXX 600 ended flat with a negative bias. The German DAX dropped half a percent and France's CAC 40 eased 0.3 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 finished marginally higher.