Tracking Asian peers, benchmark indices dropped nearly 1% on Thursday amid mixed global trends and rise in US bond yields. Except for realty, all sectors ended in red.

"In the near term, lack of any positive trigger could keep the market directionless. Even FII selling has intensified in the last couple of days, adding to the overall negative sentiments," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

OI data indicates that on the call side the highest OI was witnessed at 17500 strike price while on the put side, the highest OI was at 17000 strike price.

Here's breaking down the pre-market actions:

STATE OF THE MARKETS

SGX Nifty signals a positive start

Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 106 points, or 0.61 per cent, higher at 17,461, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Friday.

• Tech View: The underlying trend of Nifty continues to be weak. One may expect it to retest the recent swing low of 17250 levels in the short term. Further weakness below this support could open the next lower levels of 17000. Any upside bounce from here could find strong resistance around 17470 levels.
• India VIX: India VIX, which is a measure of the fear in the markets, fell 0.19% to settle at 12.97 levels.

US stocks gain U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, as Treasury yields pulled back from earlier highs following comments from Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic about his favored path of interest rate hikes for the central bank.

• Dow up 1.05%,
• S&P 500 rises 0.76%,
• Nasdaq gains 0.73%