Sensex, Nifty To Open On Cautious Note As Oil Prices Surge

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open on a flat note Friday as investors react to hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation print and a surge in oil prices after U.K. allowed military action in Yemen.

Traders await financial results from Wipro and HCL Technologies later in the day after the Q3 earnings for FY24 began on a weak note.

While TCS posted a low single-digit rise in net profit, Infosys saw its profit fall 7 percent.

On the data front, domestic CPI inflation numbers and industrial production data are due.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended marginally higher on Thursday to extend gains for a third day running.

Asian markets traded mixed this morning, with the Nikkei extending its record-breaking rally on dovish BOJ bets.

Chinese and Hong Kong markets were seeing modest gains after mixed inflation readings and ahead of Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections.

China's CPI grew slightly in December, while PPI inflation remained in contraction for a fifteenth consecutive month, separate data showed.

The dollar held steady in Asian trade while gold edged up slightly, after having fallen to a one-month low the previous day.

Oil prices traded higher by about 1 percent after Iran seized an oil tanker off the coast of Oman and the U.S. and Britain hinted they may act against Houthis in Yemen.

U.S. stocks climbed well off their worst levels of the day to end narrowly mixed overnight as hotter-than-expected inflation data dented rate cut hopes.

The CPI reading accelerated to 3.4 per cent year-on-year in December from 3.1 percent the previous month while the core inflation rate slowed to 3.9 percent from 4.0 percent.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said in an interview that it was premature to consider cutting interest rates as soon as March.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said that the latest data did little to clarify the path of inflation.

European stocks erased earlier gains to end notably lower on Thursday. The pan European STOXX 600 gave up 0.8 percent.

The German DAX shed 0.9 percent, France's CAC 40 dropped half a percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 1 percent.