Sensex, Nifty Seen Tad Lower At Open

Indian shares are seen opening a tad lower on Monday as investors seek direction from the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision due this week.

The Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated monetary policy decision is due on July 26, with economists expecting a 25-bps rate hike.

The accompanying statement and remarks by chairman Jerome Powell would be watched closely for clues about the outlook for rates.

Volatility may remain high due to the impending expiry of monthly derivative contracts on Thursday.

Corporate earnings would continue to remain in focus, with a total of 14 Nifty constituents including Asian Paints and Tata Steel are slated to unveil their quarterly earnings results this week.

Diversified conglomerate Reliance Industries on Friday reported a 11 percent drop in Q1 net profit, missing Street estimates.

Meanwhile, private sector lender ICICI Bank reported a 44 percent jump in quarterly consolidated net profit, helped by healthy growth in core income.

Asian stocks traded mixed this morning, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets slipping into the red as investors tamed down stimulus expectations ahead of this week’s Politburo meeting.

Gold was marginally lower and the dollar traded firm while Treasury yields steadied across tenors ahead of the Fed, ECB and BoJ meetings due this week.

Oil prices fell slightly following last week’s rally on signs of steady U.S. crude demand and amid bets on more stimulus in major importer China.

U.S. stocks ended a lackluster session narrowly mixed on Friday as a large volume of index and stock options expired.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up marginally to notch its 10th straight day of advance, marking its longest rally in almost six years.

The S&P 500 also ended marginally higher, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite eased 0.2 percent ahead of a rebalance of the Nasdaq 100 index.

European stocks ended Friday’s session broadly higher ahead of a busy week of central bank meetings and earnings releases.

The pan European STOXX 600 gained 0.3 percent. The German DAX slipped 0.2 percent, while France’s CAC 40 rose 0.7 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.2 percent.