Nifty and Sensex set to open lower, tracking the Wall Street sell-off

• India’s Nifty and Sensex eye a negative open after the Tuesday turnaround.
• Nifty and Sensex bounced on Tuesday amid fresh buying in banking, financial services and IT sector stocks.
• With US CPI out of the way, Nifty and Sensex traders await India’s WPI inflation data.

The Sensex 30 and Nifty 50, India’s key benchmark indices, are eyeing a negative open, following a comeback on Tuesday. The Indian indices are likely to track the Wall Street sell-off and the decline in their Asian peers, as markets take account of the hot US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.

Gift Nifty Index, formerly known as the SGX Nifty, is posting small losses, pointing to a weak start for Nifty and Sensex on Wednesday. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 index closed 0.59% higher on the day at 21,743.25. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex 30 settled Tuesday at 71,555.19, adding 0.68% on a daily basis.

Stock market news

• On Tuesday, the rebound in Nifty and Sensex was led by fresh buying in banking, financial services and IT sector stocks.
• Nifty and Sensex also cheered news that Index provider MSCI raised India's weightage in its Global Standard index to an all-time high of 18.2%. 
• Coal India, UPL, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Life Insurance Company are among the top gainers on the Nifty on Tuesday.
• Meanwhile, top losers included Hindalco Industries, Grasim Industries, Divi’s Laboratories, Ultratech Cement and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.
• Hindalco Industries on Tuesday reported a 71% YoY growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,331 crore for the quarter ended December 2023. The profit stood at Rs 1,362 crore a year ago.
• Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) become the first listed Indian entity to cross the Rs 20 lakh crore market capitalization milestone after the stock rallied up to 1.89% to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 2957.80 on Sensex.
• India’s Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) index commences trading after a four-hour delay due to technical glitches. 
• The Lunar New Year holidays in China and some of the major Asian markets could keep the liquidity thin around the Indian indices.
• Traders now await the Indian Wholesale Price Index (WPI) release due on Wednesday, with the US CPI data now out of the way.
• Data on Tuesday showed that the US annual headline CPI rose 3.1% in January, versus an estimated 2.9% increase. Markets now price in no Fed rate cut in March and a lower than 50% chance of easing in May.