Sensex, Nifty Seen Tad Higher On Less Hawkish Fed Hike

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening higher on Thursday as global sentiment improved on less hawkish Fed hike. Encouraging earnings results from the likes of Cipla, Punjab National Bank and Tata Consumer Products may also aid sentiment.

IT stocks would be in focus after Tech Mahindra reported disappointing Q1 numbers.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended Wednesday's session up around half a percent each while the rupee fell 13 paise to close at 82.01 against the dollar.

Asian stocks traded mostly higher this morning, though overall gains remained limited ahead of the ECB and BOJ policy meetings.

Gold benefited from a weaker dollar while oil prices rose about 1 percent after ending notably lower overnight on data showing a much smaller than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended July 21st.

Overnight, U.S. stocks saw wild swings before ending narrowly mixed after the Federal Reserve announced a 25-bps rate hike and left the door open for future hikes.

In his post-meeting press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that a rate cut is unlikely this year and the central bank will make decisions meeting by meeting after watching incoming economic data.

The Dow edged up 0.2 percent to extend its winning streak to 13 sessions, while the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished marginally lower.

European stocks closed firmly in the red on Wednesday as investors reacted to a mixed batch of corporate earnings and awaited the Fed move on rates.

The pan European STOXX 600 gave up half a percent. The German DAX dropped half a percent, France's CAC 40 lost 1.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2 percent.