In Asia at 7:29 a.m., Japan’s Nikkei rose 1%, Australia’s ASX 200 was 0.5% higher, but South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8%. US stock gauges ended little changed on Thursday as volume remained muted in the post holiday session. Initial Jobless claims fell to 2.19 lakh in the week ended on Dec 21. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.07% higher, and S&P 500 ended 0.04% down. The Nasdaq Composite ended 0.05% down.
GIFT Nifty was at 23,912.50, down 0.1% or 34.5 points. The benchmark equity indices saw a muted close on the day of 2024’s last monthly derivatives contract expiry of the Nifty index on Thursday. The NSE Nifty 50 ended 0.10% or 22.55 points up at 23,750.20, and the BSE Sensex closed flat at 78,472.48. Overseas investors stayed net sellers for the eighth consecutive session and offloaded stocks worth Rs 2,376.67 crore on Thursday; domestic institutional investors stayed net buyers for the seventh straight session and bought stocks worth approximately Rs 3,336.16 crore, according to provisional data from the National Stock Exchange.