Indian equity benchmarks are likely to make a gap-down opening on Thursday amid weakness across global markets, after the Fed said it is likely to hike interest rates in March and reaffirmed plans to end its bond purchases. At 8:45 am, Singapore Exchange (SGX) Nifty futures -- an early indicator of the Nifty50 benchmark index -- were down 320.5 points or 1.9 percent at 16,943.5.