Before heading into trade on Wednesday, market participants are likely to watch out for cues in the global markets. Apart from this, investors will also look forward to December quarter results of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) major ITC. They'll also keep a tab on movement in rupee and crude oil as the day progresses.
SGX Nifty
The Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange was at 10,923.50, down 8.50 points or 0.08 per cent in early trade.
Earnings Today
Nearly 50 companies including ITC, InterGlobe Aviation, Bharti Infratel, Pidilite Industries, Reliance Communications and Vijaya Bank are slated to announce their December quarter earnings later in the day.
Rupee
The rupee skidded by 16 paise Tuesday -- its third straight session of loss -- to close at 71.44 against the US dollar amid strengthening of the greenback and heavy selling in domestic equities.
Global Markets
Asian stocks edged down on Wednesday on mounting signs of slowing global growth and anxiety over a yet-unresolved Sino-US trade dispute.
Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.7 per cent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1 per cent.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow all posted their biggest one-day percentage drops since January 3 on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 301.87 points, or 1.22 per cent, to 24,404.48. The S&P 500 lost 37.81 points, or 1.42 per cent, to 2,632.9 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 136.87 points, or 1.91 per cent, to 7,020.36.
Oil Prices
Oil prices extended falls from the previous session on Wednesday, as concerns of an economic slowdown weighed on markets.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.74 per barrel, down 27 cents, or 0.5 per cent from their last settlement. International Brent crude oil futures had yet to trade.
6 MF schemes under ratings watch as IL&FS crisis continues to hit industry
The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) crisis continues to pose challenges for the Rs 22-trillion mutual fund (MF) industry.
On Tuesday, rating agency Icra placed ratings of six mutual fund schemes under watch and downgraded one of these due to their exposures to the special purpose vehicles of IL&FS.
The schemes that were put under ratings watch are HDFC Short Term Debt Fund, HDFC Banking and PSU Debt Fund, UTI Banking and PSU Debt Fund, UTI Bond Fund, UTI Dynamic Bond Fund and Aditya Birla Sun Life Short Term Opportunities Fund. Icra also downgraded Birla Sun Life Short Term Opportunities Fund from AA+mfs to AAmfs.
Sebi issues new format for mutual funds' monthly cumulative report
Markets regulator Sebi Tuesday came out with a new format for asset management companies (AMCs) for monthly cumulative reporting. From April 2019 onwards, AMCs will have to submit the MCR to Sebi in the new format by the third working day of each month, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular. Under the existing guidelines, a mutual fund scheme is permitted to invest certain percentage of AUM in schemes of same mutual fund or other schemes.
 "Global cues, Q3 results to impact market sentiments on Wednesday")
