Nifty Seen Opening Below 17,300; Ambuja Cement, Lupin In Focus

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open lower as indicated by Nifty Futures traded on Singapore Exchange amid weak global cues as investors remain on tenterhooks regarding evolving geopolitical developments between Russia and Ukraine. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.51 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.53 per cent, Taiwan Weighted dropped 0.41 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI declined 0.35 per cent.

Overnight, Oil and gold rose on Wednesday after NATO and the United States said Russia was increasing its troop build-up near Ukraine, while a dovish reading of minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting helped stocks close mostly flat on Wall Street, news agency Reuters reported.

Stronger-than-expected U.S. retail sales data and higher inflation readings from Canada and Britain added to the outlook for tighter monetary policy worldwide, but geopolitical tensions kept markets for the most part focused on the Ukraine standoff.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.16 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.09 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.11 per cent. All 11 sectors of the S&P early in the session were higher, with the exception of the energy index, but stocks pared losses after the Fed minutes came out.

Back home, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1,242 crore while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 901 crore on Thursday.

Ambuja Cements will be in focus after its consolidated net profit fell 55 per cent to Rs 431 crore in December quarter from Rs 968 crore in the same quarter last year.

Lupin will be in focus after US drug regulator USFDA approved its supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to expand the use of SOLOSEC (secnidazole) in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV) for female patients 12 years of age and older and in the treatment of trichomoniasis for all patients 12 years of age and older.