Indian Shares Set For Muted Opening; Bihar Election Results Eyed

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are set for a muted opening on Friday as investors await the Bihar election results for directional cues.

Weak global cues may also weigh on markets at open as uncertainty persists over Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and stretched valuations in technology stocks.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended Thursday's session little changed with a positive bias, paring early gains due to a sell-off in the final hour of the trading session.

The rupee moved in a tight range before ending down 6 paise at 88.68 against the dollar amid foreign fund outflows and continuous dollar demand from importers.

Foreign investors net sold shares worth Rs 384 crore on Thursday, while domestic institutional investors net bought shares to the extent of Rs 3,092 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

Asian markets were broadly lower this morning as new data showed China's growth momentum slowed in October.

The dollar index was little changed while gold edged up toward $4,200 an ounce.

Oil prices jumped more than 2 percent after Novorossiysk was attacked by drones, damaging the oil terminal at the Sheshkharis transshipment complex and causing a fire.

U.S. stocks tumbled overnight, with the major indexes logging their weakest session in a month, as valuation concerns returned to the fore and mixed comments from Fed officials prompted investors to dial back expectations of interest-rate cuts.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated a delay in $50 billion spending and a 1.5 percentage point drop in GDP due to the shutdown.

Adding to the economic uncertainty, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the October jobs and consumer price inflation reports are "likely never being released" as a result of the shutdown.

Separately, Kevin Hassett, President Trump's top economic advisor, said the October jobs reports will be released without a reading of the unemployment rate.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeted 2.3 percent while the S&P 500 and the Dow both fell around 1.7 percent.

European stocks closed lower on Thursday as the longest government shutdown in United States history ended but the final agreement left major policy questions unresolved.

The pan European Stoxx 600 shed 0.6 percent. The German DAX lost 1.4 percent, France's CAC 40 slid 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gave up 1.1 percent.