Indian shares are poised for a muted start on Wednesday after logging gains in the previous session, with rising oil prices and sustained foreign outflows weighing on sentiment while investors assess corporate earnings.
GIFT Nifty futures were at 22,764 at 7:50 a.m. IST, indicating a muted start for the Nifty 50, which closed at 22,721.95 on Tuesday.
Both the Nifty and Sensex climbed about 1.6% on Tuesday, led by information technology stocks after HCLTech’s quarterly earnings beat expectations.
“While earnings and strength in IT provided some support, the rising crude oil prices on escalating Mideast tensions remain a significant concern, as they keep inflationary and external balance risks elevated,” said Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money.
“Overall, the near-term outlook has improved following the recent recovery, but the broader trend remains cautious,” Ponmudi said.
Oil prices rose to about $107 a barrel as traders weighed supply risks from fighting between Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis and Saudi Arabia against the prospect of increased diesel supplies from Russia.
Other Asian shares inched higher on the day, as AI-linked shares found some respite after the previous session’s losses, while caution ahead of US inflation data later in the day kept a lid on gains.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) remained net sellers of domestic stocks for the 13th consecutive session on Tuesday, with outflows at 13.05 billion rupees ($136.96 million). Domestic institutional investors bought shares worth net 24.39 billion rupees, according to NSE’s provisional data.
Among individual stocks, Tata Elxsi could gain after the engineering research and development firm posted higher quarterly profit, supported by growth in its transportation and media segments.
Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers logged a sharp sequential rise in net profit, while Transformers and Rectifiers India reported a more than twofold jump in September-quarter profit from a year earlier.