(RTTNews) – Indian shares look set to open on a cautious note Friday despite firm cues from global markets. Overall gains, if any, may remain capped due to ongoing geopolitical and tariff-related uncertainties, and persisted FII outflows.
Indian stock markets as well as currency and commodity markets remained closed on Thursday as Maharashtra held elections for at least 29 municipal corporations.
Exit polls have projected a massive victory for Mahayuti in the polls, with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance projected to cross the 130-seat mark in Asia’s richest civic body.
Projections place the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance at just over 60 seats and Congress around 20 seats.
Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended down around 0.3 percent each on Wednesday after a choppy session, weighed down by sustained foreign investor selling and elevated crude oil prices due to geopolitical tensions.
The rupee pared initial gains and settled the day 6 paise lower at 90.29 against the U.S. dollar due to risk aversion in global markets.
After the market close, Infosys reported a fall in net profit in the third quarter of the current financial year but unexpectedly raised its revenue forecast.
Reliance Industries, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and Tata Technologies are among the prominent companies due to unveil their quarterly results later today.
Foreign investors net sold shares worth Rs 4,781 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors net bought shares to the extent of Rs 5,217 crore, according to provisional exchange data.
Asian markets were on track for their best weekly run since May this morning, with technology stocks leading the surge on revived AI-driven growth optimism.
Treasuries were little changed after falling in the New York session. Gold extended losses after having surged to record highs earlier this week.
Oil steadied after settling down around 4 percent on Thursday to end a five-day winning streak after U.S. President Donald Trump said he will “wait and see” before striking Iran.
U.S. stocks ended higher overnight as chip and bank stocks rebounded from losses over the two previous sessions on upbeat earnings news from the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
A sharp pullback in oil prices on easing geopolitical tensions and new data pointing to a solid jobs market also contributed to the upside.
Data showed U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly dropped to the lowest since November last week, defying economists’ estimates.
The Dow gained 0.6 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 both edged up by 0.3 percent.
European stocks closed broadly higher on Thursday as U.S. President Trump appeared to soften rhetoric against Iran and expressed optimism about reaching an agreement on Greenland.
The pan European Stoxx 600 advanced half a percent. The German DAX rose 0.3 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 added half a percent while France’ CAC 40 slipped 0.2 percent.
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