Sensex, Nifty Seen Tad Higher At Open

Indian shares are seen opening a tad higher on Wednesday as investors react to the latest earnings results from U.S. tech giants as well as stimulus news from China and Japan.

Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. both reported mostly strong quarterly results but there is a sense that AI is helping Microsoft’s cloud business more than it is helping Google’s.

China’s national legislature has just approved a budgetary plan to raise the fiscal deficit ratio for 2023 to about 3.8 percent of its GDP – well above the 3 percent set in March to address the ongoing severe liquidity crunch in the domestic property market as well as to stem the stock market’s sell-off.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei reported that the Japanese government is considering spending around $33 billion for pay-outs to low-income households and an income tax cut in a package of measures to cushion the blow to households from rising living costs.

Oil prices were little changed in Asian trade, after having fallen over 6 percent during the previous three sessions on demand concerns.

Gold edged up on softer dollar and weaker U.S. Treasury yields as global leaders continued their efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading.

After U.S. business activity ticked higher in October, investors now await the release of the U.S. GDP numbers for the third quarter on Thursday and the PCE price index on Friday for additional clues on the rate outlook.

U.S. stocks closed higher overnight as bond yields stabilized and investors cheered strong earnings from the likes of GE, Coca-Cola, Spotify and 3M.

The Dow climbed 0.6 percent to snap a four-day losing run, while the S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 0.9 percent.

European stocks rose for the first time in five days on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to the ECB monetary policy announcement and key U.S. economic data due later in the week.

The pan European STOXX 600 edged up 0.4 percent. The German DAX rose half a percent, France’s CAC 40 added 0.6 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.2 percent.

Indian markets were closed on Tuesday on account of Dussehra.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty tumbled around 1.3 percent each on Monday to extend losses for a fourth successive session while the rupee sipped 7 paise to close at 83.19 against the dollar.