Markets closed on account of election day in Mumbai

Indian equity, forex, money markets will remain closed today on account of voting for the general elections in Mumbai constituencies. Trading will resume on Friday.

On Wednesday, markets scaled fresh all-time highs for the third straight session amid buying interest in capital goods and banking stocks. It was also the expiry of April derivative contracts.

The Sensex ended at 22,877, higher by 118 points and the Nifty ended at 6841, up 25 points.

Derivative traders cut positions going into the May series, indicating uncertainty and nervousness ahead of the election results next month. On the other hand, stock-specific bullish bets were carried forward, signalling that action might move to individual stocks in the run-up to the poll outcome.

April series Nifty futures saw a rollover of about 59 per cent, much lower than the three-month average of 65 per cent. The open interest in Nifty futures at Rs 10,000 crore was below the previous month's average of about Rs 15,000 crore.

Analysts say that since positions taken to the next month have been light, benchmark indices could move in a narrow range. The highest options build-up in the Nifty was seen around 6,500 puts and 7,000 calls, indicating strong support at 6,750-levels. The cost of rollover in the Nifty moved up to 58 points from 41 points in the last expiry.

However, the Indian rupee slipped for a third session on Wednesday, falling below the 61-mark for the first time in more than a month, on account of good demand for the US dollar from importers and tracking weakness in Asian currencies.

Most Asian indices rebounded to trade with marginal gains after the recent correction while shares in Japan were trading lower amid profit taking after recent gains. The benchmark Nikkei was down 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.1%, Hang Seng gained 0.2% and Straits Times was up 0.5%.

Major US indices ended lower on Wednesday amid mixed earnings from large corporates and profit taking in biotech shares which weighed on the tech-laden Nasdaq.

The Dow Jones ended down 0.1% at 16,501.65, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% to close at 1,875.39 and Nasdaq ended 0.8% lower at 4,126.79.