Indian markets are likely to open flat on Friday to hover around previous day’s record highs, tracking Asian and US bourses as dollar continue to slide following Federal Reserve’s signal of a gradual rate hike and other major central bankers maintaining status quo.
On Thursday, Nifty closed at an all-time high 9,153.70 while Sensex too was at the peak level at 29,585.85.
On Wednesday, Fed hiked key policy rates by 25 basis points or 0.25 percentage point to a range of 0.75-1.00% while China’s PBOC hiked rates, Bank of Japan and Bank of England maintained status quo.
Global investors took comfort from the Fed stance of a slower pace of tightening going forward. Earlier, market experts were expecting rapid rate hikes that could have led to capital outflow from riskier assets and emerging markets.
Asian stocks were little changed in early trade but poised for recording the best week since September.
The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1% but may end the 3.3% higher, its biggest weekly increase since September.
The Nikkei was down 0.4% but Hang Seng gained 0.4%, Kospi 0.2%, Strait Times 0.3% and Shanghai 0.1%.
{{/usCountry}}The Nikkei was down 0.4% but Hang Seng gained 0.4%, Kospi 0.2%, Strait Times 0.3% and Shanghai 0.1%.
{{/usCountry}}US President Donald Trump’s budget outlined higher regulatory costs for the pharma sector and a cut in federal funding for medical research, dragging down shares of the sector.