Stock Market Today: Top 10 things to know before the market opens today

Nifty has support at 16,994, followed by 16,938 and 16,847.

The market is expected to open in the green as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 92 points on Wednesday.

The benchmark indices hit a fresh five-month closing low on Tuesday, with the BSE Sensex down 338 points to 57,900 and the Nifty50 shedding 111 points to 17,043, forming a bearish candlestick pattern on the daily charts.

As per the pivot charts, the Nifty has support at 16,994, followed by 16,938 and 16,847. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 17,176, followed by 17,232 and 17,323.

Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in the currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines across news platforms which could impact Indian as well as international markets:

US Markets

US stocks bounced back on Tuesday as largely on-target inflation data and easing jitters over contagion in the banking sector cooled expectations regarding the size of the rate hike at the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 336.26 points, or 1.06 percent, to 32,155.4, the S&P 500 gained 64.8 points, or 1.68 percent, to 3,920.56 and the Nasdaq Composite added 239.31 points, or 2.14 percent, to 11,428.15.

Asian Markets

Asia-Pacific markets were largely higher on Wednesday following a slightly cooler US inflation report and as the fallout in the banking sector seemed to be contained.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.78 percent as bank stocks rallied early in the trading day. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 opened 0.52 percent higher, while the Topix climbed 1.17 percent. South Korea’s Kospi also saw sharp rallies, opening 1.36 percent higher.

SGX Nifty

Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 92 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 17,203 levels on the Singaporean exchange.

Core retail inflation in US exceeds forecast for Feb

Underlying US consumer prices rose in February by the most in five months, forcing a tough choice for Federal Reserve officials weighing still-rapid inflation against banking turmoil in their next interest-rate decision.

The consumer price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.5 percent last month and 5.5 percent from a year earlier, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Tuesday. Economists see the gauge — known as the core CPI — as a better indicator of underlying inflation than the headline measure.

The overall CPI climbed 0.4 percent in February — over 70 percent of which was due to shelter — and 6 percent from a year earlier. The median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.4 percent monthly advance in the overall and core CPI measures.

Oil falls to three-month low on inflation worries, US bank shutdowns

Oil prices dropped over 4 percent to a three-month low on Tuesday after a US inflation report and the recent US bank failures sparked fears of a fresh financial crisis that could reduce future oil demand.

Brent futures fell $3.32, or 4.1 percent, to settle at $77.45 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $3.47, or 4.6 percent, to settle at $71.33.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 3,086.96 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth Rs 2,121.94 crore on March 14, the National Stock Exchange's provisional data showed.

Moody's changes outlook on US banking system to 'negative' after SVB collapse

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday revised its outlook on the US banking system to "negative" from "stable", citing heightened risks for the sector after the rapid unraveling of SVB Financial Group fueled fears of contagion.

Moody's also said it was expecting the Federal Reserve to continue tightening monetary policy, in contrast to some others who are expecting the bank collapses this month to reshape the trajectory for interest rate hikes.

Gold rally cools as US CPI takes centre stage

Gold prices eased on Tuesday, pausing their sharp rally driven by the US banking crisis, as the dollar rebounded.

Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,903.20 per ounce. US gold futures also fell 0.5 percent to $1,906.90.

Bitcoin jumps to highest since June as rally gathers pace

Bitcoin hit a nine-month high on Tuesday, taking gains past 30 percent in four days as it shrugged off chaos in global markets after last week's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and rode expectations that US interest rates won't rise so fast.

Bitcoin jumped as much as 9.6 percent to $26,533, its highest since June 2022, in its fourth straight days of gains.

Stocks under F&O ban on NSE

The National Stock Exchange has added Indiabulls Housing Finance, and retained GNFC in its F&O ban list for March 15. Securities banned under the F&O segment include companies where derivative contracts have crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.

With inputs from Reuters and other agencies