The Indian market is seen opening lower on Thursday in tandem with weak Asian peers, after Moody's Investors Service downgraded Greece's local and foreign currency bond ratings and tepid U.S. manufacturing data fueled concerns the economic recovery is faltering.
The MSCI Asia Pacific index is currently down about 1.5 percent, with the markets in Australia, Hong Kong, China and Japan leading the declines.
That said, resumption of FII buying in recent session and softening commodity prices on global growth concerns may limit the downside risk for Indian equities.
Provisional data released by BSE shows that foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs.445.22 crore on a net basis Wednesday, while domestic financial institutions sold shares to the tune of Rs.141.96 crore. FIIs bought shares to the extent of Rs.1,261.30 on Tuesday, according to data released by market regulator SEBI.
Trading volumes are showing signs of pick-up and crude prices are back below $100 a barrel which may augur well for inflation management. Crude prices are declining for a second day, after dropping more than 2 percent overnight, as disappointing reports on U.S. private sector employment and manufacturing activity and data showing rising crude stockpiles raised concerns about demand for oil.
The major U.S. averages fell over 2 percent each overnight, with another disappointing batch of economic data raising concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy.
A report from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed that private sector employment increased by 38,000 jobs in May, well below economist estimates for an increase of about 170,000 jobs, adding to recent concerns about the strength of the labor market.
Another report from the Institute for Supply Management showed a substantial slowdown in the pace of growth in the manufacturing sector in the month of May, with its index of activity falling to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April. Economists had been expecting the index to show a more modest decrease to a reading of 57.5.
The weakness in the markets was also partly due to news of major automakers reporting weak U.S. vehicle sales for the month of May.
Back home, the benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty rose about 0.6 percent each on Wednesday, as lower fourth-quarter GDP growth along with tepid data on manufacturing activity and core sector growth suggested monetary tightening will not happen in a hurry.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.