Today Nifty Market Open Green & Japan Nikkei & Kospi Market Overview

Nifty Market

              Indian indices are expected to open in green with the SGX Nifty, an indicator of pre-market opening, up around 17 points to 8744. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan held rates and asked bankers to pass on previous rate cuts and banks obliged with ICICI Bank cutting rates by 25 basis points, SBI and HDFC Bank also eased rates by 15 basis points each.

               In the currency space, the dollar recovers all the ground it lost against the euro from Friday's jobs report. The dollar index holds above 97 levels. Citing the currency's strength, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch cut its 2015 earnings estimates for the S&P 500 by USD 2 per share. Among commodities, crude prices slip after Saudi Arabia revved up crude production to its highest level on record in March. From precious metals space, gold hovers around a 7-year peak and continues to trade above USD 1200 an ounce.

              US stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday, reversing course late in the session as strength in the dollar offset optimism about deal news. The S&P utilities sector, which helped lead gains on Monday, was the biggest drag on the S&P 500, closing down 1.1 percent. The dollar recovered from recent losses, reaching session highs in afternoon trading. That shifted investor focus again to worries about its impact on US earnings.

            Shares of FedEx rose 2.7 percent to USD 171.16 as it seeks to buy Dutch package delivery company TNT Express for USD 4.8 billion. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.43 points, or 0.03 percent, to 17,875.42, the S&P 500 lost 4.29 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,076.33 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 7.08 points, or 0.14 percent, to 4,910.23. Overnight, US stocks gave up gains in the minutes before the close as investors eyed continued gains in oil and the US dollar ahead of the unofficial start of earnings season on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished in neutral territory, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ticked down 0.2 and 0.1 percent each.

              Shares of Twitter jumped 4 percent to USD 52.87 and hit their highest in six months following a Barron's report that the company has hired advisers to fend off a takeover bid. The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 9 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 68 new highs and 24 new lows. About 5.7 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, compared with the 6.3 billion daily average for the month to date, according to data from BATS Global Markets.

Japan Nikkei, Kospi & ASX Market Overview:- Japan's Nikkei 225 hit a two-week high in early trade, while the dollar-yen last traded at 120.16 - near a 13-day high attained in the previous session. Australia's S&P ASX 200 index edged up in the morning session, overcoming the disappointment from the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) decision to hold borrowing costs steady at a record low of 2.25 percent yesterday. South Korea's Kospi index widened gains by mid-morning trade, thanks to gains in its index heavyweights. Samsung Electronics, which released its guidance on first-quarter results Tuesday, gained 1.2 percent, while Hyundai Motor and Posco bounced up 0.6 and 2.8 percent each.