BENGALURU: India’s blue-chips were set to open marginally higher on Monday after logging their worst week in over a month, while Asian peers were muted over the Middle East conflict.

India’s GIFT Nifty was up 0.34% at 19,092 as of 8:06 a.m. IST, above the Nifty 50’s Friday close of 19,047.25.

Both the Nifty 50 and Sensex lost nearly 2.5% last week, dragged by high oil prices, elevated US yields and worries over the Middle East conflict.

Asian markets were subdued on Monday, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index losing 0.17%.

Wall Street equities closed lower on Friday after data showed that US inflation remained at elevated levels in September.

Meanwhile, caution over the Middle East conflict prevailed after Israel said it hit over 450 Hamas targets on Sunday and self-declared “second phase” of the attack on the Hamas militants.

Brent crude futures hovered around $90 per barrel. Higher crude prices are a negative for importers of the commodity, like India.

“The Israel-Hamas conflict in West Asia and the uncertainty surrounding the conflict has added to negative sentiments in the market,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services. Investors also await market reaction to the quarterly results of Reliance Industries.

IT stocks lead fall in Indian shares amid global slide

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate posted a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit post-market hours on Friday, as a slide in revenue from fuel sales hurt its mainstay oil-to-chemicals business.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold 15 billion rupees ($180.15 million) worth of shares on a net basis on Friday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought a net 3.14 billion rupees of shares.