Sensex, Nifty Set For Muted Start

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open a tad lower on Tuesday after Tata Steel reported over 92 percent fall in Q1 consolidated net profit but still beat estimates.

Rising oil prices and a firmer dollar ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday may also keep underlying sentiment cautious.

Investors are pinning hopes that the Fed won't sound hawkish and will likely signal it will deliver one more hike and potentially pause for a long time.

Reliance Industries' shares could be in focus today after the conglomerate announced an agreement to invest alongside Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty in special purpose vehicles.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty fell around half a percent each on Monday, with earnings and mixed global cues weighing on sentiment. The rupee ended at a three-week high of 81.8150 against the dollar.

Asian stocks traded mixed this morning, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets rallying, after China's Politburo pledged to "adjust and optimize policies in a timely manner" for its ailing property sector.

Gold edged up slightly and the dollar index hovered near a two-week high while oil prices were steady after climbing over 2 percent to a three-month high on Monday.

U.S. stocks eked out modest gains overnight as Chevron reported better-than-expected earnings and data showed that U.S. business activity grew at its slowest pace in five months in July.

The Dow rose half a percent to close higher for the 11th day in a row, marking the longest winning streak since February 2017. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 added 0.4 percent.

European stocks closed mixed on Monday as hopes for Chinese stimulus measures offset fresh data pointing to a slowdown in Eurozone business activity and an inconclusive election result in Spain.

The pan European STOXX 600 ended flat with a positive bias. The German DAX finished marginally higher and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.2 percent while France's CAC 40 ended little changed with a negative bias.