India stock benchmarks may open flat as profit-taking to offset trade optimism

India’s equity benchmarks are likely to open little changed on Friday, wrapping up a week that saw mild losses, as profit-taking could offset the impact of an improving corporate earnings outlook and expectations of progress in India–U.S. trade talks.

Gift Nifty futures were trading at 25,498.5 points as of 8:05 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open near Thursday’s close of 25,509.7.

Both the Nifty and the Sensex have lost about 0.8% so far this week, cooling off after a 4.5% rise in October.

Other Asian markets fell on the day, tracking a decline in Wall Street overnight, dragged by a sell-off in artificial intelligence-related stocks amid mounting economic uncertainty due to the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.

Indian equities are seeing profit-taking amid persistent foreign outflows, two analysts said.

Foreign portfolio investors net sold shares for a sixth session on Thursday, offloading shares worth 32.63 billion rupees ($371.24 million) while domestic institutional investors net bought shares worth 52.84 billion rupees.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were going well and that he would be visiting the South Asian country, as negotiations over trade continued.

India currently faces 50% punitive tariffs on its exports to the U.S., with half of those duties imposed in retaliation for its purchases of Russian oil.

Among individual stocks, pharmaceutical company Lupin could rally after posting a 73.3% jump in second-quarter profit, driven by strong demand for its respiratory drugs.

The country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India could also rise after reporting higher quarterly profit and wider margins.

About 40% of Indian companies that have reported quarterly results have seen earnings upgrades, Jefferies said in a mid-results review earlier this week.