Indian Shares Set To Open Higher On Trade Deal Hopes

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening higher on Friday, extending gains from the previous session on expectations of a trade deal with the United States.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that the ongoing trade talks between Indian and U.S. officials are progressing well, but at the same time, ruled out any deadline for signing a deal.

Also, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on Thursday in a call aimed at keeping economic engagement on track.

India's chief economic advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran claimed in an interview with Bloomberg TV that most of the issues between the two countries have been sorted out, and that an agreement will be reached by March next year.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty rose around half a percent each on Thursday after three successive days of losses.

The rupee closed down 0.4 percent at 90.3675 against the dollar on Thursday, after having hit a record low of 90.4675 earlier.

FIIs net sold shares worth Rs 2,021 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors net bought shares to the extent of Rs 3,796 crore, as per provisional data on the exchanges.

Asian markets were rising this morning despite jitters about the outlook for the tech sector, with Broadcom projecting a fall in quarterly margins due to a higher mix of AI revenue.

The U.S. dollar index hovered near a two-month low following the Fed's less hawkish than expected outlook on rates.

Gold ticked lower after reaching a seven-week high in the previous session while silver continued its impressive run to hit another record high.

Oil prices edged up slightly after the U.S. reportedly seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela and issued new sanctions targeting Venezuela.

U.S. stocks ended a choppy session mostly higher overnight, adding to Wednesday's rally after a divided Fed lowered rates for the third time this year and signaled a more gradual path of easing in the months ahead.

Economic reports proved to be a mixed bag, with weekly jobless claims increasing by the most in nearly 4-1/2 years last week while the trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in September to the smallest since mid-2020.

The Dow jumped 1.3 percent and the S&P 500 inched up 0.2 percent to notch new records, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3 percent after Oracle's weaker than expected revenue and underwhelming guidance revived AI overspending worries.

European stocks closed higher on Thursday as investors reacted positively to the Federal reserve's rate cut and commentary.

The pan European Stoxx 600 surged 0.6 percent. The German DAX climbed 0.7 percent, France's CAC 40 added 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose half a percent.