Nifty Seen Opening Above 17,800 Ahead Of RBI Policy Decision; Rate Sensitive Shares In Focus

The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open higher as indicated by the Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange ahead of Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Decision amid positive cues from global markets. Asian shares rose on Friday as Chinese shares returned from a one week holiday upbeat, tracking a global rally, while investors also eyed key US jobs data for any fresh insight into the timing of Federal Reserve tapering.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 per cent, after rallying 2.1 per cent the day before, its biggest daily gain since August. Japan's Nikkei index advanced 1.8 per cent.

Overnight, on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.98 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 0.83 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite moved up 1.05 per cent.

Back home, the monetary policy committee is widely expected to maintain status quo on the repo rate in order to support growth, but some analysts see a slim possibility of a token increase in the reverse repo rate.

Market participants will keep an eye on Reserve Bank's guidance on liquidity withdrawal, given that surplus cash in the banking system recently topped the Rs 10 lakh crore mark.

Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1,764 crore on Thursday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 2,528.64 crore.

Interest rate sensitive - banking, real estate, auto and financial services shares will be in focus following the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision.

Tata Consultancy Services will be on investors' radar as it will announce its second quarter earnings later in the day.

Aditya Birla Capital informed exchanges that its shareholding in Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC was reduced to 50.01 per cent following the company's initial public offering (IPO).