Sensex, Nifty To See Cautious Start On Fed's Hawkish Pause

(RTTNews) - Indian shares may struggle for direction at open on Thursday as investors react to a mixed Federal Reserve decision and data showing that India's WPI inflation declined to a seven-and-a-half-year low of (-) 3.48 percent in May on easing prices of food, fuel and manufactured items.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty edged up slightly on Wednesday to extend gains for a third consecutive session, while the rupee hit a one-month higher before settling 15 paise higher at 82.10 against the dollar, helped by robust macro fundaments of the domestic economy.

Asian markets and U.S. stock futures were little changed this morning, the dollar inched lower, and Treasuries were steady after China's central bank cut its key one-year interest rate to support real estate and domestic demand.

Meanwhile, a raft of Chinese data including reports on retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment missed expectations.

The Bank of Japan announces its monetary policy decision on Friday, with economists expecting the central bank to maintain its ultra-dovish stance and yield curve control settings.

Gold edged lower and oil extended overnight losses as new projections added a hawkish tilt to the Fed's interest-rate decision.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, as widely expected, but signaled that borrowing costs will likely rise by another half of a percentage point by the end of this year.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 finished marginally higher while the Dow shed 0.7 percent from a four-month closing high reached the previous day.

European stocks closed higher on Wednesday on the back of encouraging German, Eurozone and U.K. data.

The pan European STOXX 600 added 0.4 percent. The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both rose about half a percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 inched up 0.1 percent.