Following a nearly four-week low the previous session, Indian stock indices crept moderately higher on Friday morning, tracking Asian counterparts and reasonably robust overnight US market indications.
The benchmark Sensex and Nifty were both up 0.2% from their Thursday closes. This morning’s leading movers were the Nifty metal, pharma, and PSU bank sectoral indices.
“The ‘triple whammy’ of up-trending dollar, US bond yields and Brent crude is showing signs of easing. If this trend continues it will facilitate a recovery in markets. Stability in the US market yesterday also can be a supportive factor,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Lately, the indices slumped sharply after the US central bank, while keeping its interest rate steady in the September meeting, hinted that it may again hike rates going ahead if need be, in its fight against inflation.
Rising global crude oil prices and the resulting strengthening of the US currency weighed on financial markets as well.
Investors will keenly scrutinize the RBI’s monetary policy meeting, which is set for October 4-6. In a regular fiscal year, the RBI has six bi-monthly meetings to deliberate on interest rates, money supply, inflation outlook, and different macroeconomic variables.