The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open at fresh record highs as indicated by the Nifty futures traded on the Singapore Exchange. The Nifty futures on Singapore exchange also known as the SGX Nifty futures was indicating a start above 16,800 for the Nifty 50 index as the SGX Nifty futures contracts jumped 99 points to 16,824. Meanwhile, Asian shares started the week with gains and the dollar was not far off two-week lows after US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell struck a more dovish tone than some investors expected in long-awaited speech on Friday.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.9 per cent soon after the bell, and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.32 per cent in early trading before Chinese markets had opened.
Investors had been waiting to see whether Powell, who was speaking at a symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, would give a clear indication of his views on timing of the central bank's tapering of asset purchases or hiking interest rates to start removing monetary stimulus.
However, in his prepared remarks, he offered no indication on cutting asset purchases beyond saying it could be "this year", causing the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to close last week at new record highs.
Back home, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 778.75 crore while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1,646 crore on Friday.
Bharti Airtel will be in focus after its board of directors approved fund raising via rights issue. The company plans to raise Rs 21,000 crore via rights issue and it has priced its share in rights issue at Rs 535.
Mahindra & Mahindra will be in focus after its arm Mahindra Defence Systems received an order from Ministry of Defence for the manufacturing of Integrated Anti-Submarine Warfare Defence Suite (IADS) for modern warships of Indian Navy. The order is worth Rs 1,349.95 crore.
Nazara Technologies will be on investors' radar after the company's board approved buying 100 per cent stake in OpenPlay Technologies Private Limited. In the first tranche of the Strategic Investment, the Company shall acquire 23.30 per cent of the issued and paid up share capital of OpenPlay for a consideration of Rs 43.43 crores, by end of Q2 of FY 2021-22.
