US markets decline as Fed begins meeting and Nvidia tumbles; GIFT Nifty up

Global Markets Outlook

As the Federal Reserve kicked off its meeting on March 19, the US markets declined marginally. At 8:30pm IST, the S&P 500 was down 0.10 percent at 5,144.10. Nvidia, which had pulled the markets higher on March 18 declined, thus bringing the Nasdaq Composite 0.45 percent lower at 16,030.58. However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 0.34 percent higher at 38,923.04. On Tuesday, Nvidia shares tumbled 2.16 percent to 865.18.

The GIFT Nifty traded flat-to-positive at 21,866.50.

The European markets traded mixed, with the FTSE continuing losses for the second day, trading 0.06 percent lower at 7,717.93. However, the CAC was up 0.41 percent at 8,181.63 and the German DAX traded flat-to-positive at 17,934.93.

Earlier during the day, the Nikkei edged 0.66 percent higher at 40,003.60 as the Bank of Japan announced the ending of its negative rates experiments on March 19. CNBC quoted the BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda stating that “these talks would be key to sustainable price increases that would inform any decision to hike rates for the first time in 17 years”. On the other hand, Hang Seng declined 1.24 percent to 16,529.48.

Also Read: Bank of Japan ends era of negative interest rates

The Indian indices also fell, owing to sharp selling pressures and weak cues from other Asian markets. The Nifty was down 1.08 percent at 21,817.45 and the Sensex traded 1.01 percent lower at 72,012.05.

DIIs net purchased Rs 7,449.48 crores while the FIIs/FPIs net purchased Rs 1,421.48 crores.

Crude continued to rise for a second day and was up 0.58 percent at 83.20. Brent also rose 0.46 percent to 87.29.