Stock Market LIVE Updates: GIFT Nifty indicates a negative start; Wall St falls, Asian markets gain

U.S. stocks slipped on Tuesday, giving up modest gains late in the session to send the Dow and S&P 500 to their third straight decline, as investors awaited economic data in a holiday-shortened week to gauge the Federal Reserve’s policy path.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.31 points, or 0.08%, to 39,282.33. The S&P 500 lost 14.61 points, or 0.28%, at 5,203.58 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 68.77 points, or 0.42%, to 16,315.70.

The dollar steadied on Wednesday in the wake of more strong U.S. economic data, nudging the Japanese yen closer to a test of levels that drew official market intervention back in 2022.

The yen traded at 151.52 per dollar early in the Asia session, within a whisker of 151.94 where Japanese authorities stepped in during October 2022 to buy the currency.

Nifty remained sideways throughout the day as market participants stayed perplexed on the first day of the holiday-shortened week. However, the trend remained positive for the short term as the index closed above the critical moving average on the daily chart.

On the lower end, support is placed at 21,840 for the short term, below which weakness may emerge. On the higher end, resistance is visible at 22,240-22,300.

Trends on GIFT Nifty indicate a negative start for the broader index in India, with a loss of 42 points or 0.19 percent. The Nifty futures were trading around 22,048 level.

The markets broke three-day winning momentum and ended lower in the volatile session on March 26 with Nifty around 22,000 amid selling seen in the Information Technology, Bank and Media sectors.

At close, the Sensex was down 361.64 points, or 0.5 percent, at 72,470.30, and the Nifty was down 92.10 points, or 0.42 percent, at 22,004.70.

After a weak start, the market traded in a negative zone, however, it witnessed an intraday recovery with buying seen in the Oil & Gas, Metal, Capital Goods and Realty stocks. But ended near the day’s low amid selling in major Media, IT and Banking names.

Bajaj Finance, Hindalco Industries, Britannia Industries, Adani Ports and L&T were among the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers were Power Grid Corporation, Eicher Motors, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Wipro.

On the sectoral front, Bank and Information Technology indices were down 0.5 percent each, while Capital Goods, Realty, Oil & Gas, Metal indices gained 0.5-1 percent.

The broader indices outperformed the main indices with BSE Midcap index rising 0.7 percent and Smallcap index closed flat.