Indian shares seen opening flat ahead of heavyweight earnings

Indian shares are set to open little changed on Friday as investors await earnings reports from several heavyweight companies after market hours and oil prices ​hover around one-month highs on renewed U.S.-Iran clashes.

GIFT Nifty futures were ‌trading at 24,091 as of 7:45 a.m. IST, indicating the Nifty 50 could open slightly above Wednesday’s close of 24,072.75.

Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries will report results after the market closes, ​while several top private lenders, including HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, are ​scheduled to post earnings over the weekend.

“Given the significant weightage of ⁠these companies in the benchmark index, the outcome of these earnings is expected ​to provide the catalyst for the market’s next directional move,” said Dhupesh Dhameja, ​a derivatives research analyst at SAMCO Securities.

The Nifty 50 has held above its 20-day exponential moving average, suggesting buyers are defending lower levels despite repeated rejection near the 24,200 resistance zone.

The ​index has traded between 23,800 and 24,600 over the past month, a phase ​analysts describe as healthy consolidation as investors assessed renewed Middle East tensions, monsoon progress and corporate ‌earnings.

Information ⁠technology stocks will also be in focus after Wipro missed quarterly earnings estimates and signalled a weak recovery.

Peer Tech Mahindra, in contrast, topped quarterly revenue expectations, helped by growth in its manufacturing segment and a weaker rupee.

Brent crude rose 1.3% to $85.30 a ​barrel after the United ​States and Iran ⁠stepped up attacks across the Gulf.

Asian markets were subdued, weighed down by chipmakers as investors continued to rotate out of semiconductor ​stocks.

Foreign portfolio investors sold Indian equities worth a net 42.06 ​billion rupees ($436.6 ⁠million) on Thursday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth a net 29.86 billion rupees, according to provisional NSE data.