Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on March 3, 2022

FII/DII activity: Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold Indian equities worth ₹4,338.9 crore on Wednesday, according to provisional exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made net purchases to the tune of ₹3,061.7 crore.

Wall Street ended sharply higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signalled the central bank would likely raise interest rates less than some investors had feared. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.79 percent to end at 33,891.35 points, while the S&P 500 gained 1.86 percent to 4,386.54. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.62 percent to 13,752.02.

Oil prices extended their rally on Thursday, with Brent rising above $116 a barrel, as trade disruption and shipping issues from Russian sanctions over the Ukraine crisis sparked supply worries while U.S. crude stocks fell to multi-year lows. Brent crude futures rallied to $116.83 a barrel, the highest since August 2013. The contract was at $116.60 a barrel, up $3.67 by 0112 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $113.01 a barrel, up $2.41 after touching a fresh 11-year high of $113.31 a barrel.

NSE International Exchange (NSE IFSC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NSE, will start trading Amazon, Tesla, 6 other US stocks from today onwards. The trading currency will be US Dollars and the minimum ticket size is $0.01. The trading will start at 8:30 PM on day one to 2:30 PM the next day.

Indian markets ended lower on Wednesday, snapping a two-day winning streak as it resumed trade after a day's holiday. Weakness across global markets amid escalating tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine and lower than expected GDP growth dampened investor sentiment. BSE Sensex fell 778 points to 55,469 yesterday, while the Nifty50 plunged 188 points to 16,606.

Russian troops invaded the Ukrainian city of Kherson and forced their way into the council building, the mayor said after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow had make the first major gain of a city in its invasion that began eight days ago.

Asian shares crept higher on Thursday after reassuring comments from the Federal Reserve helped Wall Street rally, though the war in Ukraine sent oil and resource prices spiralling ever higher in a grim omen for global inflation. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan nudged up 0.4 percent and away from its recent 15-month low. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.9 percent to 26,617.51 and South Korea's Kospi was up over a percent at 2,732.66. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.3 percent at 22,415.66 and China's Shanghai Composite also gained 0.3 percent at 3,491.70.

The rupee depreciated by 47 paise to close at 75.80 against the US dollar on Wednesday, pressured by the Russia-Ukraine crisis. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 75.78 against the American dollar but later dropped to a low of 75.86. The local unit finally finished at 75.80, down 47 paise from its previous close.

Gold prices continued to rise after their best monthly gain in nine months in Feb, after Western countries slapped fresh sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin put his country's nuclear deterrent on high alert.