Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on February 2, 2023

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed sharply higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that inflation was starting to ease, in remarks he made following a quarter-point rate hike by the U.S. central bank. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.92 points, or 0.02%, to 34,092.96, the S&P 500 gained 42.61 points, or 1.05%, to 4,119.21 and the Nasdaq Composite added 231.77 points, or 2%, to 11,816.32.

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific traded mixed on Thursday as investors digested the U.S. Federal Reserve's smaller rate hike of 25 basis points and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged inflation is falling.South Korea's Kospi rose 1%. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 traded just above the flatline while the Topix lost 0.12%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.34%.

America's Federal Reserve slowed its pace of interest rate hikes Wednesday, tempering an aggressive campaign to rein in costs as inflation cools while signaling the battle is not yet over. The US central bank announced a quarter-point hike to the benchmark lending rate at the end of its two-day policy meeting, taking the rate to a target range of 4.50-4.75 percent. Inflation has eased somewhat but remains elevated, said the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in a statement. The committee anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate to bring inflation back to policymakers' two percent target over time, the statement said.

The Bidget was tabled in the Parliament yesterday by FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Among the key highlights of the Budget were an increase in the income tax rebate limit from ₹5 lakh to ₹7 lakh in the new tax regime and an increase in capital investment outlay for the third year in a row to ₹10 lakh crore. Despite the increase in investment outlay, the fiscal deficit for FY23 was maintained at 6.4 percent of the GDP, which was positive, as per experts.

Equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty ended mixed on February 1 after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget for the financial year 2023-23 in Parliament. Sensex managed to close in the green on gains in shares of select heavyweights such as ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, ITC, Infosys and TCS. However, Nifty50, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices ended in the red. Sensex closed 158 points, or 0.27 percent, higher at 59,708.08 while the Nifty ended at 17,616.30, down 46 points, or 0.26 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 131 points or 0.7 percent lower at 17,568, indicating a gap down opening for the Indian markets. 

The rupee appreciated 8 paise to close at 81.80 against the US dollar on Wednesday after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2023-24.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) have net-bought shares worth ₹1,785.21 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) have net-purchased shares worth ₹529.47 crore on February 1, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Gold prices extended gains on Thursday to touch their highest in more than nine months after the US central bank raised interest rates by an expected 25 basis points and comments from Chair Jerome Powell were read as dovish by the market, reported Reuters.