Indian Shares Set For Lower Open Ahead Of Budget

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open a tad lower on Friday as investors react to a slew of earnings results announced after market hours the previous day and await the Union Budget presentation on Sunday.

ITC, Vedanta, Dixon Tech, Voltas and Blue Star have unveiled their quarterly results after market hours while Bajaj Auto, Bank of Baroda, Blue Dart, NALCO and Nestle are due to report their results later today.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty recovered from a weak start to end up around 0.3 percent each on Thursday after the Economic Survey's First Advance Estimates put FY26 real GDP growth at 7.4 percent and Gross Value Added (GVA) growth at 7.3 percent, "reaffirming India's status as the fastest-growing major economy for the fourth consecutive year".

"India is an oasis of economic performance in the global scenario. The growth numbers stand out in comparison to any other part of the world," Chief Economic Adviser V.A. Anantha Nageswaran said.

The rupee slipped to a record low near the 92 level before recovering marginally to end down 18 paise at 91.96 against the greenback amid strong dollar demand linked to derivative maturities and corporate hedging.

Foreign investors offloaded shares worth Rs 394 crore on a net basis Thursday, while domestic institutional investors net bought shares to the extent of Rs 2,634 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

Asian markets were mixed this morning, while U.S. equity futures fell as Apple warned of margin pressures, adding to concerns about AI investment returns.

Trade concerns also kept investors on edge after U.S. President Donald Trump said he will de-certify all aircraft made in Canada and signed an executive order aimed at imposing trade tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba.

On the positive side, U.S. Senators have reached a deal to avert a partial U.S. government shutdown that was set to begin on Saturday.

President Trump said he would announce his pick for a nominee to chair the Federal Reserve on Friday morning.

Treasuries edged lower in early Asian trade and the dollar was poised for a second straight weekly decline, while gold fell further from record highs to trade below $5,300 an ounce.

Rising nearly 24 percent so far in January, spot gold was headed for its best monthly gain since the 1980s.

Oil prices hovered near multi-month highs and were set for significant monthly gains on concerns that a potential U.S. attack on Iran could affect flows from the Middle East.

Oil prices were down nearly 1 percent in Asian trade after surging more than 3 percent in the New York trading session overnight.

U.S. stocks ended mostly lower overnight after Microsoft reported slower growth in its cloud business.

The Dow recovered from an early sell-off to close 0.1 percent higher while the S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.7 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Thursday as investors digested a raft of earnings reports from some of Europe's biggest companies.

The pan European Stoxx 600 dropped 0.2 percent. The German DAX plummeted 2.1 percent as SAP results disappointed. France's CAC 40 finished marginally higher and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.2 percent.