Nifty Seen Opening Above 16,300; Tata Steel, Eicher Motors In Focus

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open higher as indicated by the Nifty futures traded on the Singapore Exchange amid weak cues from other Asian markets. Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange also known as the SGX Nifty rose 38 points to 16,332. Asian shares failed to follow a strong close on Wall Street with fears about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus weighing on sentiment even as tame US inflation eased fears the Federal Reserve would rush to reduce its economic support.

That data also caused dollar to retreat against most major currencies and US Treasury yields to edge down overnight though both were steadier in Asian hours.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.25 per cent in early trading, dragged by a 0.24 per cent decline in Chinese bluechips. The Hong Kong benchmark fell 0.2 per cent while Australian shares were largely flat and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.35 per cent.

Overnight, global shares hit record highs Wednesday after data showed US consumer price increases slowed in July, easing concerns that the Federal Reserve will imminently signal a scaling back of bond purchases.

The data showed tentative signs inflation had peaked as supply-chain disruptions work their way through the US economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P500 both closed at record highs, with sentiment boosted by US lawmakers approving a trillion-dollar infrastructure package on Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 220.23 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 35,484.9, the S&P 500 gained 11.02 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 4,447.77 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 22.95 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 14,765.14.

Back home, foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 238 crore and domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 206 crore.

Eicher Motors, Tata Steel, Aurobindo Pharma, Hero MotoCorp, Ashok Leyland, Bharat Forge, Bharat Petroleum and Oil India will be in focus as they will report their June quarter earnings.

Power Grid Corporation will be on traders' radar after it approved a proposal to infuse fresh equity up to Rs 425 crore in Energy Efficiency Services (EESL), a joint venture company of Power Grid, NTPC, PFC and REC.

Bata India's loss narrowed to Rs 69.47 crore in June quarter compared with loss of Rs 101 crore in the same quarter last year. Its revenue however jumped nearly doubled to Rs 267 crore from Rs 135.1 crore in the year ago period.