Indian shares set for higher open; Shriram Finance in focus
Indian shares are likely to open higher on Tuesday, after marking a rebound in the last session from the previous week's weakness on elevated market volatility, while Shriram Finance's plans to sell off its housing finance business will be in focus.
The Gift Nifty was trading at 22,254.50 as of 8:09 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open above Monday's close of 22,104.05.
Indian benchmarks opened lower on Monday but reversed losses to end higher, helped by pharma stocks and Nifty heavyweight HDFC Bank.
"Anticipated stability in banking majors and select heavyweights in sectors such as IT and energy may foster further upward movement, although breaching the 22,300-22,400 range could prove challenging," said Ajit Mishra, Senior Vice President - Research, Religare Broking.
Intense foreign selling and worries around the majority with which Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to return to power in the world's largest democracy have kept investors jittery and pushed the volatility index to a 19-month high on Monday.
The results of the ongoing seven-phase-long election are due on June 4.
Meanwhile, foreign investors sold Indian shares worth 44.99 billion rupees ($538.8 million) on a net basis on Monday, while domestic institutional investors bought 35.63 billion rupees in stocks.
They have been sellers in 24 of the last 29 sessions.
On the day, Asian peers outside Japan hovered around 15-month highs while Wall Street equities closed mixed overnight as investors await the U.S. inflation print on Wednesday for further rate cut clues.
On the domestic front, Nifty constituent Shriram Finance will be in focus after the non-banking finance firm unveiled, after market hours, plans to sell its housing finance business to U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus in a $554.6 million deal.
STOCKS TO WATCH:
DLF - Indian real estate company reported higher fourth-quarter profit, aided by sturdy luxury housing demand.
Hindalco - Aluminium producer's unit Novelis made public its filing for an initial public offering in the United States.
Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd - Rail infrastructure developer bagged a work order worth 2.39 billion rupees from Southern Railway.