Domestic equity market benchmarks BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 are staring at a negative opening on Thursday as investors would react to overnight developments from the US Federal Reserve meeting. In the previous session, headline indices gained as markets took positive cues from RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das’s statement in the FICCI National Executive Committee meeting, where he assured that the RBI is closely monitoring the economic situation. In today’s trade, investors would track developments around the COVID vaccine and UK Vote on Brexit. Besides, market participants would also track rising COVID cases and developments around India-China border issues. “If any weakness in the market is witnessed, one should look at it as a buying opportunity to add quality stocks in their portfolio as the overall long term market trend remains positive,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

SGX Nifty down 85 points: Trends on SGX Nifty suggested a weak opening for Sensex and Nifty on Thursday. Nifty futures were down 85.60 points or 0.74 per cent at 11,526 on Singaporean Exchange.

US Fed vows to keep interest rates low: The Federal Reserve on Wednesday vowed to keep interest rates near zero until inflation is on track to overshoot the U.S. central bank’s 2 per cent target, a bold new promise aimed at bringing millions of out-of-work Americans back to the labour market, according to Reuters report.

New listing: IT services firm Happiest Minds Technologies shares will debut on stock exchanges today. The 702-crore IPO of Happiest Minds Technologies was subscribed a massive 150.98 times on the last day of bidding. Bengaluru-based IT services company IPO received bids for over 351 crore equity shares against the offer size of over 2.32 crore shares.

FII and DII data: On Wednesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 264.66 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 212.21 crore on a net basis, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

Global markets: Asian peers were seen trading lower in early trade on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.14 per cent while the Topix index was flat. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.18 per cent. In overnight trade on Wall Street, US stocks indices ended mixed with S&P 50 reversing gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.13 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.46 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.25 per cent.