Nifty Seen Opening Above 16,600; Assembly Election Results In Focus

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open higher as indicated by the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange as market participants will closely watch out for ongoing assembly election results of five state elections. The Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange also known as SGX Nifty Futures rose nearly 2 per cent or 307 points to 16,651 amid strong global cues.

Stocks rallied for their biggest gain in nearly two years Wednesday as a sharp drop in oil prices eased fears that inflation was about to get worse around the globe. Japan's Nikkei rallied nearly 4 per cent, Singapore's Straits Times advanced 2 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2.2 per cent and Taiwan Weighted climbed 2.5 per cent.

Overnight, the S&P 500 climbed 2.6 per cent, its biggest increase since June 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2 per cent and the Nasdaq composite jumped 3.6 per cent. The gains snapped a four-day losing streak for the major indexes, though they remained on pace for weekly losses.

The market turnaround came as the price of U.S. crude oil dropped 12 per cent, the most since November, bringing relief after a sharp run up in crude prices since Russia invaded Ukraine. Brent, the international oil standard, fell 13.2 per cent, its biggest fall in almost two years.

Back home, early trends from counting were indicating that Bharatiya Janata Party was leading in Uttar Pradesh, Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, Congress in Uttarakhand, Congress in Goa and BJP in Manipur.

Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 4,819 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 3,275 crore.