BENGALURU, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Indian shares are expected to decline at open on Thursday, following losses in other Asian equities and Wall Street overnight after the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said it was too soon to speculate over a rate hike pause.
India’s NSE stock futures, listed on the Singapore exchange , were 0.94% lower as of 0211 GMT. The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) fell 1.53%.
The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) ended 0.34% lower at 18,082.85 on Wednesday, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) closed 0.35% down at 60,906.09, with the indexes snapping four straight sessions of gains.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points on Wednesday as widely expected and said its battle against inflation will require borrowing costs to rise further.
On moving to smaller rate increases, Powell said “that time is coming and it may come as soon as the December meeting,” while adding “no decision has been made” yet on the action to take at next month’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
Later in the day, the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet, and is likely to discuss its response to the government after failing to meet its inflation target for three quarters in a row. However, Governor Shaktikanta Das said the RBI would not immediately make details of its report public.
On the earnings front, Adani Enterprises Ltd (ADEL.NS), Adani Wilmar Ltd (ADAW.NS) and Hero Motocorp Ltd (HROM.NS) are among the companies expected to report their quarterly results later in the day.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought a net 14.36 billion Indian rupees ($173.61 million) worth of equities on Wednesday, while domestic investors sold 13.78 billion rupees of shares, as per provisional data available with the National Stock Exchange.
Stocks to watch:
** Sugar stocks: The Indian government raised price of up to 65.61 rupees for purchase of ethanol from sugar mills as the nation wants to boost blending with gasoline, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday.
** Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd (MMFS.NS) reported September-quarter profit of 4.48 billion rupees, a 56.2% year-on-year decline.
** JK Paper Ltd (JKPA.NS) reported a second-quarter profit that nearly tripled, helped by strong demand for its packaging boards and copier papers.
** India’s biggest Apple and IT products distributor Redington Ltd (REDI.NS) reported a 26% jump in September quarter profit on the back of buoyant domestic demand for phones, laptops and software.
** Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Ltd (MAHH.NS) reported a 30.7% drop in profit for the second-quarter, hit by higher expenses and a fall in revenue at its European operations.
($1 = 82.7120 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru;Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil
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