By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares were set to open lower on Thursday, tracking a slide in global equities, after fresh inflation indicators in the United States further sealed investor expectations that interest rates would not come down soon.
India’s NSE stock futures listed on the Singapore exchange were down 0.31% at 17,465, as of 7:50 a.m. IST.
Two of the three major Wall Street indexes fell after official data showed prices of raw materials in the U.S. rising in February, suggesting inflation remained at elevated levels.
The data, along with earlier readings on monthly consumer and producer prices in January and weekly jobless claims, heightened expectations of longer-than-expected high interest rate regime in the U.S.
A rise in inflation in Germany also bolstered expectations of aggressive rate hikes by the European Central Bank.
Asian markets declined on Thursday, with the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shedding 0.14%. [MKTS/GLOB]
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FII) offloaded a net 4.25 billion rupees worth of equities on Wednesday.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have sold a net 387.89 billion Indian rupees ($4.70 billion) worth of Indian equities in 2023 so far.
Indian equities snapped an eight-day losing streak on Wednesday, aided by metal stocks on strong manufacturing activity data from China. Analysts cautioned that Wednesday’s moves were likely temporary.
STOCKS TO WATCH ** Eicher Motors: Royal Enfield sold 71,544 units in February, up 21% year-on-year from 59,160 units. International business sales rose 1%.
** Bajaj Finserv: Co gets regulatory license to start mutual fund business.
** Rail Vikas: Co emerges lowest bidder for manufacturing and maintenance of 200 Vande Bharat trainsets; cost per set is 1.20 billion rupees.
** Adani Ports: Co incorporates unit HM Agri Logistics for development of Silo complexes.
** Sunteck Realty: Co signs lease agreement with Upgrad for its premium commercial project; the project is set to generate revenue of 20 billion rupees over lease tenure.
($1 = 82.4900 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru;Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
