Indian shares set to tick higher at the open, tracking Asian peers
Indian shares are set to open marginally higher on Thursday, after snapping a six-session winning streak in the previous session, while their Asian peers gained slightly, led by a rally in Japanese stocks.
India's GIFT Nifty was trading at 22,150 as of 8:11 a.m. IST, indicating that the NSE Nifty 50 will open above its Wednesday's close of 22,055.05.
The blue-chip indexes, Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex, lost about 0.6% each on Wednesday, as domestic investors booked profits after six sessions of gains in which the benchmarks gained 2.7%.
Domestic institutional investors (DII) snapped a seven-session buying streak on Wednesday, offloading shares worth 4.12 billion rupees (about $50 million), on a net basis.
Foreign investors, on the other hand, turned net buyers after two sessions, adding 2.85 billion rupees of shares.
IT stocks, which led the losses on Wednesday, will be in focus again after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting indicated most policymakers were concerned about the risk of cutting rates too soon.
The odds of a rate cut in June were little changed after the minutes. Indian IT firms earn a significant share of their revenue from the United States.
Wall Street equities were mixed overnight. Asian markets opened marginally higher, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index adding 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei 225 hit a record high.
Japanese technology stocks jumped after U.S. chipmaker Nvidia reported strong earnings and gave a robust growth and demand outlook.
STOCKS TO WATCH:
** Balrampur Chini Mills, Shree Renuka Sugars, Dalmia Bharat Sugar, EID Parry: The government hiked sugarcane fair and remunerative price (FRP) for 2024-25 season starting October.
** Eureka Forbes: Large shareholder Lunolux is likely to divest up to a 12% stake for 11.49 billion rupees, through block deals, according to reports.
** Brigade Enterprises, PVP Ventures: The companies plan to develop a residential project, with a revenue potential of 20 billion rupees.
** NBCC: The company got in-principle approval for furtherance of existing projects in Amrapali for about 100 billion rupees. ($1 = 82.9250 Indian rupees)
