Sensex Trades Marginally Higher, Nifty At 10,755; Reliance Industries Falls Nearly 2%

The S&P BSE Sensex opened on a flat note at 35,428 points, while NSE's Nifty also traded flat at 10,742.70. However, the market indices edged up in the afternoon trade. At 1.07 pm, Sensex traded 42 points, or 0.12 percent higher, to trade at 35,474. NSE's Nifty, at the same time, traded 13 points, or 0.12 percent, higher at 10,754 points. "I think domestic institutions are losing muscle power in terms of shouldering the markets from pain points," said Saurabh Jain, AVP - Research at SMC Global Securities, adding some amount of correction was "very much" required. The Nifty energy index shed 1.1 percent, as global oil prices rose on uncertainty over whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would manage to agree on a production increase at a meeting later in the day.

Indian rupee rose by 19 paise in the opening hours against US dollar on Friday after increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks, reported PTI. 

On Thursday, markets regulator Sebi announced a set of market reforms liberalizing the IPO) norms. This is expected to go down well with the markets in the long run.  

The RITES IPO received a positive response in the first two days of subscription as the issue was subscribed over two times in the closing hours of Thursday.

Reliance Industries was down 1.9 percent, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd inched 0.6 percent lower. In Asia, shares ex-Japan clawed back after earlier sliding to their lowest level in six months on signs U.S. trade battles with China and many other countries were starting to chip away at corporate profits.

"People are wary of this trade protectionism policy. Things between the United States and China are becoming worse," Jain said. According to traders, sustained selling by participants in line with a weak trend at other Asian markets following overnight losses at the Wall Street amid investor concerns about the trade dispute between the US and China dampened trading sentiments here. Meanwhile, India will raise customs duty on 29 products, including almond, walnut and pulses, imported from the US as a retaliatory action against the tariff hike by Washington. The duty hike would come into effect from August 4, the Finance Ministry said in a notification. 

Crude Oil amid Vienna meet

Oil prices rose by more than 1 percent in early Asian trading on Friday, pushed up by uncertainty over whether OPEC would manage to agree a production increase at a meeting in Vienna later in the day. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $74.07 per barrel at 6.04 am, up $1.02 cents, or 1.4 percent, from their last close.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a producer cartel de-facto led by top exporter Saudi Arabia, is meeting together with some non-OPEC members including top producer Russia at its headquarters in the Austrian capital to discuss output policy. The group started withholding supply in 2017 to prop up prices.

Amid strong demand, the market has since tightened significantly, pushing up crude prices and triggering calls by consumers to increase supplies.

Saudi Arabia and Russia are in favour of raising output. Other OPEC-members, including Iran, have opposed this, resulting in a flurry of backdoor diplomacy ahead of the meeting, which starts on Friday. "The actual decision by OPEC and its partners - which may not actually become apparent until Saturday - is the big one traders are watching," said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader.

Global markets
Asian shares were under pressure on Friday on signs U.S. trade battles with China and many other countries are starting to chip away at corporate profits, with oil prices choppy ahead of major producers meeting to discuss raising output.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed in early trade, stuck barely above its six-month low hit on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei lost 1.0 percent.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for an eighth straight session on Thursday and the S&P 500 lost 0.63 percent, with industrials and materials shares hit hard.

Even the high-flying Nasdaq Composite shed 0.88 percent. (With Reuters,PTI inputs)