Indian stock indices in red Thursday early trade

MUMBAI: Indian stock indices traded in the red on Thursday morning, largely due to persistent weak global cues. At 9.38 am, Sensex and Nifty were in a range of 0.4-0.5 per cent.

Global market conditions are weak on concerns that global growth will continue to slow in 2023 due to monetary policy tightening by various central banks to control inflation.

Stocks in the US closed mostly lower Wednesday to start March, after the release of weak economic data, a further rise in bond yields, and remarks by several Federal Reserve officials reiterating the need for higher interest rates to combat inflation, said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC securities.

The US central bank's policy rate is now in a target range of 4.50-4.75 per cent, the highest level in 15 years, and notably, it was near zero in the early part of 2022. Raising interest rates is a monetary policy instrument that typically helps suppress demand in the economy, thereby helping the inflation rate decline.

"Domestic economy-facing stocks like banks, capital goods, cement, select autos and FMCG will continue to do well. Banking stocks are resilient and can be expected to remain strong even amidst FII selling," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.