India’s benchmark indexes are expected to open largely flat on Friday as investors assess the quarterly results of heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys and Axis Bank.
The GIFT Nifty futures were trading at 23,322 as of 7:59 a.m. IST, indicating that the blue-chip Nifty 50 will open near Thursday’s close of 23,311.8.
Both the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex rose about 0.4% each in the previous session after underlying US inflation softened in December, boosting the likelihood of further rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Financials lead rise in Indian shares
This could spur foreign investments into emerging markets such as India.
Reliance Industries, the second-heaviest stock on the benchmarks, beat third-quarter profit estimates on Thursday, while No.2 IT firm Infosys raised its revenue forecast and highlighted early signs of a pick-up in discretionary spending by its US clients.
Shares of private lender Axis Bank could fall on Friday after the company missed its quarterly profit forecast on slower loan growth and a rise in bad loan provisions.
All three companies announced their results after Indian market hours on Thursday.
Other Asian markets were off to a muted start, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index shedding 0.2%, while Wall Street equities closed lower overnight, pulling back from their biggest daily percentage gain since Nov. 6 on Wednesday.
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