Indian equity benchmarks pared most of their initial losses but ended lower on Wednesday, led by losses in IT, TECK and Oil & Gas stocks. Key gauges made a gap-down opening as traders remained cautious with OECD said India's gross domestic product (GDP) in the June quarter contracted 1.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter, when adjusted for seasonality, and was the second worst performance among the G20 countries - the first being China. Some cautiousness also came as a private report stated that investments by private equity and venture capital funds plummeted 80 per cent to $2.2 billion in August, a 19-month low.  Sentiments remained down-beat amid a report stating that investors' wealth eroded by more than Rs 2.21 lakh crore in early trade on Wednesday, with the market witnessing a selling-off amid prospects of aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve to tackle high inflation, and sluggish global trends. However, key indices managed to trim some of their initial losses in the afternoon session taking support from data showing that India's inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) eased to 12.41% in the month of August 2022 as against 13.93% in July 2022. Inflation in August is primarily contributed by rise in prices of mineral oils, food articles, crude petroleum & natural gas, basic metals, chemicals & chemical products, electricity, food products etc. as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. Besides, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) stood as net buyer in Indian equities and bought worth Rs 1,956.98 crore on September 13, as per data available on the NSE.  Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 224.11 points or 0.37% to 60,346.97 and the CNX Nifty was down by 66.30 points or 0.37% to 18,003.75.

The US markets ended marginally higher in volatile session on Wednesday. The choppy trading on the day came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves following recent volatility, which saw the major averages nearly wipe out their recent recovery rally with their worst day since June 2020. Concerns about the outlook for interest rates continue to weigh on the markets after Tuesday's hotter-than-expected consumer price inflation report. The data has led to worries the Federal Reserve could raise interest by 100 basis points after next week's monetary policy meeting. On the economic data front, the Labor Department released a separate report showing a modest decrease in US producer prices in the month of August. The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand edged down by 0.1 percent in August after falling by a revised 0.4 percent in July. Street had expected producer prices to dip by 0.1 percent compared to the 0.5 percent drop originally reported for the previous month. The report also showed the annual rate of growth in producer prices slowed to 8.7 percent in August from 9.8 percent in July, roughly in line with estimates. On the sectoral front, while most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, energy stocks saw significant strength amid a notable increase by the price of crude oil. Crude for October delivery jumped $1.17 to $88.48 a barrel. Reflecting the strength in the energy sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index surged by 3.3 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index shot up by 2.4 percent. The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index also spiked by 3.2 percent, as the price of natural gas for October delivery soared $0.83 or 10.0 percent to $9.114 per million BTUs. Semiconductor and networking stocks also saw considerable strength, while steel stocks saw substantial weakness, dragging the NYSE Arca Steel Index down by 4.3 percent.

Crude oil futures ended higher on Wednesday on speculation the Biden administration might consider refilling the country's oil reserve, and on data showing a drop in gasoline stockpiles last week. Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that gasoline inventories dropped by 1.8 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles rose by 4.2 million barrels. Meanwhile, data from EIA showed US crude inventories increased by 2.4 million barrels in the week ended September 9th. Besides, IEA said it expects widespread switching from gas to oil for heating purposes, saying it will average 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in October 2022 to March 2023, about twice the level of a year ago. Benchmark crude oil futures for October delivery rose $1.17 or about 1.3 percent to settle at $88.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for November delivery gained $0.71 or about 0.76 percent to settle at $93.88 (provisional) a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.    

Erasing previous session gains, Indian Rupee ended weaker against dollar on Wednesday, on account of sustained dollar demand from importers and banks. Higher-than-expected US CPI print resulted in risk-off sentiment among investors. Besides, losses in local equity market also hit the rupee sentiment. Sentiments were fragile as OECD said India's gross domestic product (GDP) in the June quarter contracted 1.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter, when adjusted for seasonality, and was the second worst performance among the G20 countries - the first being China. Some cautiousness also came with private report stating that investments by private equity and venture capital funds plummeted 80 per cent to $2.2 billion in August, a 19-month low. On the global front, sterling gained against the dollar on Wednesday as the greenback moving broadly lower and British inflation unexpectedly eased for the first time in a year. Finally, the rupee ended at 79.51 (Provisional), weaker by 34 paisa from its previous close of 79.17 on Tuesday.

The FIIs as per Wednesday's data were net buyers in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 10904.30 crore against gross selling of Rs 6330.59 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1098.94 crore against gross selling of Rs 356.23 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 2.12 crore against gross selling of Rs 8.69 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday as investors tried to find their footing after the biggest one-day drop in more than two years. Asian markets are mostly trading higher in early deals on Thursday following the broadly positive cues from US markets overnight. Indian equity markets ended lower on Wednesday as OECD said India's gross domestic product (GDP) in the June quarter contracted 1.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter, when adjusted for seasonality, and was the second worst performance among the G20 countries - the first being China. Today, markets are likely to make positive start amid firm cues from global markets. Traders may get support with report that revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj is bullish that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) will be able to garner goods and services tax (GST) revenues of over Rs 1.5 trillion every month from October onwards. This comes at a time when GST collections have been falling behind the Rs 1.5-trillion mark for the last four months. Traders may take note of report that India and France agreed to set up an Indo-Pacific trilateral framework to roll out development projects, decided to expand strategic cooperation and vowed to work closely to deal with pressing global challenges such as food crisis triggered by the Ukraine war. However, some cautiousness may be prevailed later in the day as the commerce ministry in its latest data has said India's exports rose marginally by 1.62 per cent to USD 33.92 billion and trade deficit more than doubled to USD 27.98 billion in August. Trade deficit in August 2021 stood at USD 11.71 billion. Imports rose by 37.28 per cent to USD 61.9 billion in August this year. Meanwhile, Apex body for exporters Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said that with global trade facing headwinds due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, merchandise exports from India are expected to grow at a slower pace during the current fiscal. It may rise about 11 per cent to over $470 billion. Exports grew 45 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $422 billion in 2021-22. Rising inflation and pile up of inventories in all major economies have affected the purchasing power, thus hitting demand. There may be some buzz in sugar stock as India is reportedly poised to allow 5 million tonnes of sugar exports in the first tranche for the new marketing year beginning October.

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• Tata Power Company and Tata Motors have entered into a PPA to develop a 4 MWp on-site solar project at Tata Motors' Pune commercial vehicle manufacturing facility.
•  Mahindra & Mahindra has collaborated with UCO Bank, which will enable the company to offer attractive financing options to its SUV customers.
•  Tech Mahindra has entered into a strategic partnership with Quantre Solutions, a customer communications management consulting service provider headquartered in the US.
•  Tata Steel's subsidiary -- TSF and The Energy and Resources Institute have signed a MoU in New Delhi to collaborate on implementing the latest stage of The Green School Project which aims to create awareness about environment conservation in the school network.