Sensex, Nifty Set To Drift Lower With Earnings In Focus

(RTTNews) - Indian shares may open on a sluggish note Friday as investors react to mixed global cues and earnings results from the likes of Reliance Industries, Infosys, Axis Bank and LTIMindtree.

Reliance Industries announced a record quarterly profit and Infosys raised its FY25 revenue guidance while Axis Bank reported a tepid rise in its December quarter profits.

LTIMindtree reported a 7.14 percent decline in consolidated net profit in Q3, missing estimates.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty eked out modest gains on Thursday to extend gains for a third straight session. The rupee weakened by 19 paise to close at 86.55 against the greenback.

Asian markets pared early losses as Chinese fourth-quarter GDP data exceeded estimates.

Factory output and retail sales figures topped expectations and home prices declined at a slower pace for a fourth month while fixed-asset investment data fell short of estimates.

The Japanese yen is poised for its strongest weekly performance in over a month amid BoJ rate hike bets.

The dollar was down against peers while gold held steady near a more than one-month high and was set for a weekly gain on revived hopes of Fed rate cuts.

Oil inched higher in Asian trade and headed for a fourth weekly gain, driven by concerns over tighter supply following U.S. sanctions on Russian oil producers and signals from a Federal Reserve official of potential interest rate cuts.

U.S. stocks succumbed to profit taking overnight, a day after a benign inflation reading and strong bank earnings helped the three major indexes notch their biggest one-day percentage gain in over two months.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.9 percent, while the Dow and the S&P 500 both slid around 0.2 percent despite falling bond yields following dovish remarks from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller.

In economic news, retail sales growth slowed down more than expected in December and weekly jobless claims increased more than expected last week while a gauge of manufacturing activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region shot up by the most in about four-and-a-half years in January, a slew of data showed.

European stocks hit their highest level in a month on Thursday, with strong results from Cartier owner Richemont and renewed rate-cut hopes helping underpin investor sentiment.

The pan European STOXX 600 rallied 1 percent. The German DAX rose 0.4 percent, France's CAC 40 surged 2.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 1.1 percent.