Sensex, Nifty To See Cautious Open On Worries About Oil Prices, Fed Policy

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are set to open on a sluggish note Thursday as investors react to a continued sell-off in Treasuries and increased geopolitical tensions.

Iran urged Muslim countries to sanction Israel amid an emergency meeting of members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In another development, the U.S. has tightened rules on AI chip sales to China.

Tech stocks may come under selling pressure today after U.S. tech stocks suffered heavy losses overnight and Wipro reported underwhelming Q2 earnings.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty fell around 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively on Wednesday, while the rupee fell by 2 paise to close at 83.27 against the dollar.

Asian markets followed Wall Street higher this morning, while oil prices slipped after rallying almost 2 percent in the previous session.

The dollar index was little changed even as U.S. Treasury yields surged to multi-year highs on hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official and ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech. Gold extended gains on safe-haven demand.

U.S. stocks tumbled overnight as a combination of rising Middle East tensions, rallying oil prices and higher bond yields dented investors' appetite for risk.

A string of upbeat earnings reports and data showing a sharp rebound in housing starts failed to lift sentiment.

The Dow dropped 1 percent, the S&P 500 slumped 1.3 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeted 1.6 percent.

European stocks fell sharply overnight after a deadly missile attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza derailed the diplomatic efforts led by the U.S. to reduce tensions in the region.

The pan European STOXX 600 lost 1.1 percent. The German DAX gave up 1 percent, France's CAC 40 shed 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 1.1 percent.