Indian shares may open a tad higher on Thursday as investors react to the U.S. administration's announcement of its support for waiver of IPR for COVID-19 vaccines.
A phase three of the virus is inevitable, given the high levels of circulating virus, but it is not clear on what time scale this phase 3 will occur, said K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor, to the government of India.
Shares of Tata Steel could be in focus after the company reported a higher-than-expected consolidated net profit for the March quarter and announced it has put its proposal to sell the Southeast Asian business on the back burner.
Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty climbed 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively on Wednesday after the RBI announced a host of measures to tackle the second COVID-19 wave in the country.
The rupee, however, fell by six paise to settle at 73.91 against the dollar, snapping its two-day winning streak.
Asian markets are trading mixed this morning and the dollar held near two-week high as investors looked forward to Friday's U.S. monthly jobs report that may provide clues on when the Federal Reserve will dial back monetary stimulus.
Gold edged lower on a firmer dollar while oil prices fell after data showed gasoline inventories in the United States rose for a fifth consecutive week.
U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight as investors digested mixed economic data and fretted about inflation.
Shares of major pharmaceutical companies dropped as the Biden administration announced support for waiving intellectual patent protections for coronavirus vaccines.
The Dow rose 0.3 percent to reach a new record closing high and the S&P 500 inched up marginally while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite eased 0.4 percent.
European markets advanced on Wednesday as investors weighed robust earnings reports and a brightening economic outlook against inflationary concerns.
The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.8 percent. The German DAX surged 2.1 percent, France's CAC 40 index rallied 1.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 1.7 percent.
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