BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares are set to open little changed on Tuesday after a positive start to the week as investors awaited a slew of quarterly results across sectors.
India’s GIFT Nifty on the NSE International Exchange was up 0.02% at 19,890 as of 8:05 a.m. IST.
Asian markets edged higher on Tuesday tracking Wall Street gains overnight as strong earnings and signs of moderation in inflation boosted sentiment.[MKTS/GLOB]
Oil prices hit a three-month high of $85.58 per barrel on Monday, logging the most monthly rise in 18 months, on signs of tightening supply and steady demand.
Brent crude futures hovered above $85 per barrel on Tuesday. A rise in oil prices is a negative for oil importing countries like India, in which crude constitutes a significant share of the import bill.[O/R]
The Nifty 50 and Sensex gained over 0.5% each on Monday, despite foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remaining net sellers.
Benchmarks had risen on every session of FII inflows and fallen on each session of outflows since July 7. FIIs sold 7.01 billion rupees ($85.23 million) worth of shares on a net basis on Monday while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased 24.88 billion rupees of equities, as per provisional NSE data.
Foreign portfolio investors have bought Indian equities for five months in a row triggering monthly rise in benchmark indexes. In July, FPIs purchased 466.18 billion rupees worth of Indian shares. The Nifty 50 rose 2.94%.
Analysts expect momentum to continue in markets with phases of consolidation and sector-rotation. They expected auto stocks to be in focus on Monday as monthly sales data trickle in.
STOCKS TO WATCH:
** Maruti Suzuki: India’s top carmaker posts better-than-expected profit in June quarter, reveals plans to buy its Japanese parent’s plant in Gujarat.
** Power Grid Corporation of India: Co reports fall in first quarter profit, on weaker demand in its core transmission business.
** Rail Vikas Nigam: Co gets Letter of Award for two projects with a cost of about 3.32 billion rupees.
** Key earnings on Tuesday: Escorts Kubota, PVR Inox, Thermax.
($1 = 82.2500 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
