Sensex, Nifty Seen Lower Amid Fed Policy Speculation

Indian shares look set to open lower on Monday as strong U.S. employment data spurred bets for an early tapering of the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program.

Key macroeconomic data and the latest batch of corporate results may sway sentiment as the week progresses.

Industrial output data for June and CPI inflation numbers for August will be released on Thursday.

BPCL, Eicher Motors, Grasim Industries, Hero MotoCorp, Jindal Steel & Power, Lupin, ONGC, Shree Cement and Tata Steel are among the prominent companies that will unveil their quarterly earnings this week.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty rose about 3 percent last week to snap two weeks of losses, with banks and IT stocks leading the surge.

Asian stocks traded mixed as Chinese trade data disappointed and the U.S. Senate moved closer to passing a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

The dollar hit a four-month high against the euro while gold slumped below $1,700 for the first time in the last five-month period.

Oil extended losses after the worst week since October on concerns the Delta virus strain will hamper demand growth. Treasury bond yields rose while Bitcoin traded at $43,000 after hitting the highest since May over the weekend.

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Friday as better-than-expected jobs data added to economic optimism but also raised concerns about the outlook for monetary policy.

Non-farm payroll employment spiked by 943,000 jobs in July after surging by an upwardly revised 938,000 jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to jump by 870,000 jobs.

The Dow rose 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 edged up 0.2 percent to reach new record closing highs while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index slipped 0.4 percent.

European stocks ended Friday’s session slightly higher, with investors focusing on earnings, U.S. jobs data and the global spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 ended flat with a positive bias. The German DAX edged up 0.1 percent and France’s CAC 40 index gained half a percent while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 ended on a flat note.