Indian shares are poised for a higher opening on Monday, benefiting from a positive reaction to the U.S. Department's monthly jobs report. U.S. employers hired the most workers in five months in July, but an increase in the jobless rate to 8.3 percent signals that another round of bond buying from the Fed, known as quantitative easing, is on the anvil.
Closer home, Mauritius-based entities have been net sellers in Indian equities and have off-loaded shares worth about Rs 3,000 crore in about 24 companies since the beginning of this fiscal through open market transactions, the Economic Times reports, citing data available with the stock exchanges. The companies whose shares have been sold include companies like Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Hindusthan and state-run MTNL.
Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India and Tata Motors are among the companies that will unveil their first-quarter results this week, while industrial production data for June will be out on Thursday. Telecom stocks could be in focus after the Union Cabinet fixed a high reserve price of Rs 14,000 crore for a pan India licence for the auction of 2G spectrum, and that for CDMA operator at 1.3 times that amount.
Indian shares snapped a three-week losing streak last week, with renewed FII buying underpinning sentiment. The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 2.1 percent, while the 50-share broader Nifty index gained 2.3 percent.
Asian Markets
Asian markets are trading mostly higher, with key benchmark indexes in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea climbing about 2 percent each, boosted by stronger-than-expected U.S. employment data.
U.S. And European Markets
U.S. stocks soared on Friday, thanks to an encouraging report on services sector activity and better-than-expected jobs data. The Dow jumped 1.7 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 2 percent and the S&P 500 added 1.9 percent.
The Labor Department report showed stronger than expected job growth in July, with non-farm payroll employment increasing by 163,000 jobs in the month following a downwardly revised increase of 64,000 jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 100,000 jobs.
Despite the stronger than expected job growth for the month, the unemployment rate edged up to 8.3 percent in July from 8.2 percent in June. The increase surprised economists, who had expected the unemployment rate to come in unchanged.
Major European markets too ended with strong gains on Friday, with France's CAC 40 and the German DAX climbing about 4 percent each.
Crude
U.S. crude futures jumped to a two-week high on Friday as stronger U.S. economic data, a weaker dollar and renewed hopes that the ECB will take further action to address the crisis increased investor appetite for risk.. Crude for September delivery surged $4.27 or 4.9 percent to close at $91.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
by RTT Staff Writer
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