The Indian market is seen opening flat to slightly lower on Friday, tracking mixed Asian cues and a positive close on Wall Street overnight. Japan's Nikkei is currently adding 0.3 percent and South Korea's Kospi is gaining half a percent, while the markets in China, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore are edging down modestly, with lower crude and copper prices and data showing easing U.S. manufacturing growth exerting pressure on the markets.
Closer home, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs.37.41 crore on a net basis Thursday while domestic financial institutions bought shares to the extent of Rs.132.34 crore, provisional data released by BSE shows.
FIIs have been apprehensive about Indian equities of late amid fears that high inflation would lead to a further hike in interest rates that may slowdown economic growth. Disappointing quarterly results from heavyweights such as Infosys, Reliance Industries and State Bank of India also dampened investor enthusiasm over corporate outlook to a certain extent.
The benchmark Sensex rose 0.31 percent and the Nifty added 0.14 percent on Thursday, with both indexes snapping their three-session losing steak, as soft inflation data, improved fourth-quarter earnings from Larsen & Toubro and a jump in U.S.stocks on Wednesday boosted sentiment.
On Wall Street, the major averages witnessed choppy trading overnight before ending up by 0.2-0.4 percent as traders digested a mixed batch of economic data on jobless claims, existing home sales and regional manufacturing activity.
Crude futures for July delivery are rising about half a percent in New York after dropping 1.6 percent yesterday as investors are still divided over economic data coming out of the world's largest economy.
Data released overnight showed that jobless claims fell to 409,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 438,000 versus expectations for a modest decrease to 425,000. However, a report released by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed a substantial slowdown in the pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of May.
The report showed that the diffusion index of current activity fell to 3.9 in May from 18.5 in April, dropping to its lowest level since last October. While a positive reading still indicates growth, economists had been expecting the index to increase to 23.0.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.