India’s equity benchmarks are set to open higher on Friday, after last session’s steep intraday losses, on optimism that a proposed U.S.-Russia presidential meeting next week could ease Washington’s stance on India’s energy engagement with Russia.
Gift Nifty futures were trading at 24,642 points as of 8:17 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 (.NSEI), opens new tab will open above Thursday’s close of 24,596.15.
The Nifty and Sensex fell nearly 1% each during Thursday’s session after U.S. President Donald Trump announced an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, taking the total to 50%, citing New Delhi’s continued oil trade with Moscow.
Trump has threatened fresh sanctions on Russia and its trade partners from Friday unless his Russian counterpart, Vladimit Putin, agrees to end the 3-1/2-year war in Ukraine.
However, markets rebounded after a Kremlin aide confirmed an upcoming Trump-Putin meeting, which analysts said could mark a turning point in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and prompt Washington to ease pressure on nations like India that import Russian oil.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPI) offloaded Indian shares for the 14th straight session on Thursday, taking outflows to 49.97 billion rupees ($571 million).
Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DII) continued their buying spree into the 24th straight session, purchasing equities worth 108.64 billion rupees – the largest single-day buying in four months.
Among individual stocks, Swiggy, Vishal Mega Mart, Waaree Energies and Hitachi Energy India will be in focus, following their upcoming inclusion on the MSCI India index.
Sona BLW Precision Forgings and Thermax were excluded in this month’s reshuffle and will go off the index on August 26.
MSCI index inclusion is expected to drive passive inflows into constituent stocks as many foreign investors use MSCI benchmarks to align their portfolios.
American Dollar Exchange Rate