Mitul Shah - Head of Research - Institutional Desk, Reliance Securities Ltd.
Indian equities closed lower after positive opening. Nifty fell 0.1% while Nifty Mid Cap and Nifty Small Cap were down 0.3% and 0.1% respectively. Sectoral indices ended mixed. Nifty PSU Bank (+0.7%) and Nifty Metal (+0.8%) were the major gainers. Nifty FMCG lost the most at 1.1% followed by Nifty Healthcare and Nifty Pharma which were down 0.8% and 0.7% respectively.
The U.S. equities closed higher following comments from Federal officials. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, the Dow Jones edged up 0.6%, while Nasdaq rose 1%. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to 3.618% from 3.516% on Monday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank is strongly committed to lowering inflation, even though interest-rate increases to restrain economic growth could fuel political blowback.
The market is awaiting on the 3QFY23 earnings result for further cues. The inflation in the US, Europe and other economies may have peaked out. Meanwhile, central banks across the globe are pushing ahead with unwinding of their pre-COVID ultra-loose monetary policies, though at a slower pace. While the Indian markets have remained resilient as compared to the global economy, the RBI is expected to continue raising rates in the near term. India is expected to maintain healthy pace of GDP growth of ~7% over the next few years and would remain among the fastest growing economies globally this decade.