Indian Shares May Struggle For Direction Ahead Of US Jobs Report

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening on a flat note Friday, as investors react to mixed global cues, the latest auto sales data for August and the Nifty 50 rejig.

Chief economist at State Bank of India has revised downward India's GDP growth forecast for FY2023 to 6.8 percent from 7.5 percent earlier, citing "the way below GDP numbers for the first quarter".

Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty fell more than 1 percent each on Thursday amid a global sell-off.

The rupee eased by 4 paise to close at 79.56 against the dollar, with falling oil prices and dollar selling by exporters helping cap the downside.

Asian stocks traded mixed this morning and U.S. stock futures wavered after Wall Street snapped a four-day losing streak to end mostly higher overnight.

A dollar gauge hovered near a record high and the two-year Treasury yield was at the highest since 2007 after new U.S. data confirmed the Federal Reserve's stance that it can remain aggressive with the tightening of policy.

Oil bounced above $87 a barrel and gold held below the key $1,700 psychological level ahead of the all-important U.S. jobs data for August due later in the day.

U.S. stocks reversed course before ending mixed overnight, as data showed manufacturing grew steadily in August and the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance unexpectedly dropped last week.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended 0.3 percent lower following new restrictions on exports of cutting-edge chips from Nvidia to China, while the Dow rose half a percent and the S&P 500 edged up 0.3 percent.

European stocks fell sharply on Thursday as investors reacted to new COVID-19 lockdowns in China and disappointing manufacturing data from Asia and the euro area.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gave up 1.8 percent. The German DAX fell 1.6 percent, France's CAC 40 index shed 1.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 1.9 percent.