There was hardly any relief for the Indian markets after being butchered in the last session, as the benchmarks after a strong start on supportive Asian market cues lost their direction and showed a volatile trade throughout the session, moving in and out of the red zone. Markets lacked conviction from the very beginning and faced intermittent profit taking at the higher levels. Traders even overlooked report of private sector activity in the country, which registered a significant uptrend and surged to a 37-month high in March. The Nikkei Services Business Activity index rose to 54.3 in March from 51.4 in February and its joint-highest level since June 2014. Meanwhile, the Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index, which maps both manufacturing and services sectors, climbed from 51.2 in February to a 37-month high of 54.3 last month. Going forward, Indian services companies remain optimistic that activity will increase further over the coming 12 months. There was some strength in rate sensitive stocks after RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra, a day after the central bank cut policy rate by 0.25 per cent, expressed hope that transmission of lower interest rate through banks will be more effective this time. On the global front, while the US markets ended lower, the Asian markets made a mixed closing. The European markets made a cautious start but soon moved higher buoyed by energy stocks. Back home, Indian markets kept moving in a narrow range throughout the day, with every attempts of recovery meeting similar strength of profit booking. It was hopes of more rate cuts going forward and statement of NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy's that India's growth could be around 7.8 percent in 2015-16, higher than the Finance Ministry's projection of 7.5 percent that restricted any major fall in the markets, though the general sentiment remained cautious as companies gear up to report their March quarter earnings. Finally, the BSE Sensex ended at 24900.63, up by 17.04 points or 0.07%, while the Nifty ended higher by 11.15 points or 0.15% at 7614.35.

The US market closed higher on Wednesday, boosted by soaring oil prices, while minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting signaled reluctance to raise rates as early as this month. A jump in oil prices sent shares of energy companies' sharply higher, boosting indexes in early trade. Oil prices soared 5.2%, to close at $37.75 a barrel after a surprise drop in inventories. The Energy Information Administration reported US crude supplies in storage fell by 4.9 million barrels in the week ended April 1. Minutes from the March 15-16 meeting showed several officials argued against an interest-rate increase in April, saying such move would signal too much urgency they didn't think appropriate. US central bank officials also were split on whether the stubbornly low inflation would hit the Fed's 2% target level. The minutes showed broad concern about the fragile state of the financial markets and the global economy even though stock market volatility from the beginning of the year had settled down by the time of their meeting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 112.73 points or 0.64 percent to 17,716.05, Nasdaq gained 76.79 points or 1.59 percent to 4,920.72 while, S&P 500 was up by 21.49 points or 1.05 percent to 2,066.66.

Crude oil futures bouncing from their one month's low surged on Wednesday on reports that stockpiles nationwide declined last week by their highest weekly amount since January. The US Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report that crude inventories nationwide decreased by 4.94 million barrels for the week ending on April 1. For the week, total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.4 million barrels, while Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.8 million barrels. At 529.9 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are at historically high levels for this time of year. Meanwhile, US production fell 14,000 barrels last week to 9.008 million barrels per day, declining to its lowest level since November, 2014. Benchmark crude oil futures for May delivery surged by $1.83 or 5.10 percent to $37.72 a barrel after trading in a range of $36.44 and $37.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for June delivery closed at $39.78, up $1.91 or 5.04 percent on the ICE.

Indian rupee extending weakness for the second day declined on Wednesday, due to demand for American currency from banks and importers, amid weakness in Asian currencies. The domestic currency was weak from the very beginning. Investors who expected 50 basis points rate cut from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started covering their short positions. On Tuesday, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan cut the benchmark repurchase rate to 6.5% from 6.75% and announced a change in its liquidity stance. Investors even overlooked the report of private sector activity in the country, which registered a significant uptrend and surged to a 37-month high in March. The Nikkei Services Business Activity index rose to 54.3 in March from 51.4 in February -- its joint-highest level since June 2014. On the global front, dollar edge near a 17-month low against the yen on Wednesday after taking a fresh knock overnight on comments by Japan's prime minister that suggested Tokyo was cautious about reining in the yen's rise. Finally, the rupee ended at 66.66, 20 paise weaker from its previous close of 66.46 on Tuesday.

The FIIs as per Wednesday's data were net sellers in equity segment, while they were net buyers in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 3273.63 crore against gross selling of Rs 4204.23 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 2064.88 crore with gross sales of Rs 1353.09 crore.         

The US markets surged in last session coming out of their consolidation mood. The major averages not only ended the session just off their best levels of the day, but the tech heavy Nasdaq was able to post its three-month closing high. The sharp gains were partly due to a notable increase by the price of crude oil. The Asian markets have made a mixed start with some of the indices trading in red despite US Federal Reserve meeting minutes reaffirming that US policy makers aren't in a rush to raise interest rates. The Indian markets largely remained un-influenced by the gains of other global markets and made a flat closing after a choppy trade in last session. Today, the start is likely to be flat, as the regional peers are not showing much enthusiasm to the US Fed's indication of a gradual rate hike. However, markets will get some strength in latter part of the trade supported by industry body CII terming the GDP calculation methodology an "imprecise science" and pegging the country's economic growth at around 8 per cent for the current fiscal, higher than the RBI's projection of 7.6 per cent. Also, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that conditions are in place for the Indian economy to start growing faster in the next few quarters as banks pass on its rate cuts to their borrowers.  Meanwhile, in an important development the government approved fiscal deficit target of 3 percent for states, as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission for the 2015-20 period. It has also provided for year-to-year flexibility for additional deficit. The telecom stocks will continue buzzing, as the Union cabinet has decided to allow telecom companies to use spectrum allocated to them without auction to offer new services to consumers at a provisional price recommended by the telecom regulator. The cabinet decision will allow companies to deliver third generation or fourth generation mobile services as well as to share and trade the spectrum with other operators.

Support and Resistance: NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex

Nifty Top volumes

• Yes Bank has inked an agreement for on-lending $50 million loan received from World Bank arm IFC to women entrepreneurs.
• ONGC has received green nod for its Rs 350 crore project of drilling 22 exploratory wells in NELP-9 blocks located at Banaskantha, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
• Zee Entertainment Enterprises has launched its bollywood channel 'Zee Sine' in the Philippines market.
• Larsen & Toubro's construction arm L&T Constructions has won orders worth Rs 2125 crore across its various businesses.
• Tata Motors has launched its mid-segment hatchback Tiago with a starting price of Rs 3.20 lakh, ex-showroom New Delhi for the Revotron 1.2L petrol variant and Rs. 3.94 lakh for the Revotorq 1.05L diesel variant.