BENGALURU: Indian shares were set for a muted open on Tuesday, after logging gains in the previous two sessions, on hopes of a rate hike pause by the US Federal Reserve at its policy meeting next week.

India’s NSE stock futures listed on the Singapore exchange were down 0.08% at 18,709.50, as of 8:14 a.m. IST.

Wall Street equities closed lower overnight after logging weekly gains on Friday.

Data showing slowing wage growth, the unemployment rate climbing off a 53-year low, and a stagnating services sector have reinforced expectations of a Fed pause on June 14.

Most Asian markets edged lower.

Domestically, investors await the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy decision due on June 8.

The Indian central bank is expected to leave its key interest rate unchanged this week and for the rest of 2023, a Reuters poll of economists showed.

Both the Nifty 50 and Sensex indexes are less than 2% off their record highs.

Indian shares advance on hopes of Fed rate hike pause

“India’s equity market continues to be attractive despite rich valuations due to strong earnings growth and a swelling bid from both domestic and foreign investors,” analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a note on Monday.

The brokerage prefers cyclicals to defensives and small and midcaps to largecaps and remains overweight on financials, technology, consumer discretionary and industrials.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors sold 7.01 billion rupees ($85 million) worth of Indian equities on Monday, while domestic investors bought 11.96 billion rupees ($145 million) of shares on a net basis, as per provisional NSE data.