India’s equity benchmarks are likely to open higher on Friday, tracking positive cues from global markets, as better-than-expected U.S. labour and retail sales data allayed some concerns over weakness in the world’s largest economy.
The Gift Nifty futures were trading at 25,185.5 points as of 8:04 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open above Thursday’s close of 25,111.45.
Asian stocks rose on the day, with MSCI’s broadest index for Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan up 0.7%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched record closing highs overnight.
On Thursday, data showed U.S. retail sales rose after two months of decline in June, while fewer-than-expected jobless claims were filed last week, indicating resilience in the world’s largest economy, which boosted investor confidence globally.
In India, benchmark Nifty is down 0.2% so far this week, after logging two straight weekly losses amid a weak start to the earnings season, particularly from IT majors such as Tata Consultancy Services and HCLTech.
Bucking that trend, Wipro beat earnings expectations on Thursday, boosted by improved client spending in parts of its Americas business. The IT company’s U.S.-listed shares jumped 3.4% following the results.
Its peer LTIMindtree narrowly missed revenue estimates for the June quarter as persistent inflation, weak demand and U.S. trade policy uncertainties delayed non-essential tech projects.
Meanwhile, Axis Bank’s UK-listed shares slipped nearly 5% on Thursday after the lender posted an unexpected drop in first-quarter profit due to an increase in bad loans after a one-time industry benchmarking exercise.
Reliance Industries and JSW Steel will also be in focus on Friday, as the companies are scheduled to report their first-quarter earnings.
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