BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian blue chips are set to open marginally higher at the start of the week, after closing at a three-week high in a special trading session for the festival of Diwali on Sunday, and tracking a rise in Asian peers.
India’s GIFT Nifty was up 0.30% at 19,548 as of 8:23 a.m. IST on Monday, above the benchmark Nifty 50’s Sunday close of 19,525.55.
The benchmarks Nifty 50 and Sensex rose over 0.5% each in the special one-hour “muhurat” trading session on Sunday, led by gains in energy and information technology stocks.
“We expect Indian markets to maintain its outperformance over other emerging markets, on the back of healthy economic outlook and strong earnings,” said Motilal Oswal, group managing director and chief executive of Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
India’s retail inflation data for October is due after market hours later in the day, and a Reuters poll predicts the reading at a four-month low of 4.80%.
Wall Street equities advanced on Friday. Investors await U.S. consumer prices and retail sales data, due later this week, which could influence the interest rate trajectory of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Asian markets opened higher on Monday. [MKTS/GLOB]
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to offload Indian equities in November. FIIs sold shares worth 1.90 billion rupees ($22.81 million) on Sunday, extending their selling streak to the 14th session.
Foreign outflows from domestic markets hit a nine-month high in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic institutional investors extended their buying streak for the 18th session in a row, adding 953.1 million rupees worth of shares on a net basis.
STOCKS TO WATCH:
** Dr Reddy’s Laboratories: Drug maker acquires 26% stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called O2 Renewable Energy for 240 million rupees.
** Coal India: Company beats second-quarter profit view on higher power demand.
** Eicher Motors: Company posts record September quarter profit on strong Royal Enfield sales.
($1 = 83.3090 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng)
