Sensex, Nifty Set For Weak Open As Adani Group Scraps FPO

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open lower on Thursday despite Wall Street closing sharply higher overnight amid easing Fed fears.

Given the scale of the Adani-Hindenburg issue, it is likely that FIIs may take a cautious stance.

In a stunning move, Adani Enterprises late on Wednesday decided to withdraw its Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offering (FPO), saying that going ahead with the issue would not be morally correct and the interest of the investors is paramount.

The company will refund proceeds it had received as part of its FPO and will review capital market strategy once the market stabilizes.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended a highly volatile session mixed on Wednesday while the rupee settled 2 paise lower at 81.90 against the dollar.

Asian markets were seeing modest gains this morning and the dollar tumbled while gold extended gains to reach its highest level in more than nine months.

Oil prices rose slightly in Asian trading after having fallen over 3 percent to end at three-week low on Wednesday amid signs of another large build in U.S. inventories.

U.S. stocks rallied overnight to close at their highest level since last summer, the dollar extended losses and Treasury yields fell after the Fed raised rates by 25 bps, as widely expected, and said "ongoing increases" in main rate will be appropriate.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that inflation was starting to ease and that financial conditions had tightening significantly over the past year.

In economic releases, private payrolls growth slowed in January while manufacturing contracted for the third consecutive month, separate reports showed.

The Dow inched up marginally, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2 percent and the S&P 500 surged 1.1 percent.

European stocks gave up early gains to end mixed on Wednesday as the Fed decision loomed.

The pan European STOXX 600 ended flat with a negative bias. The German DAX rose 0.4 percent, while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both closed marginally lower.