Indian Shares Seen Opening Little Changed

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open on a flat note on Thursday as investors assess the chances of an Iran peace deal and await cues from Friday's closely watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.

As the session progresses, sentiment may be influenced by the latest batch of corporate earnings results, oil price movements and foreign fund flows.

Iran said it had reached an agreement with Oman on a proposed route for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, making a potential step toward reopening of the critical waterway for energy supplies.

A joint statement from Tehran and Muscat is under review and in the final drafting stage, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said, adding a deal would be struck "if certain third parties do not obstruct this process." U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal could be announced this week.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News the Iranians are "extraordinarily difficult people", describing the effort to end the war as "messy" and that "it's going to take some time."

Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed they had fired ballistic missiles towards a Saudi oil tanker on the Red Sea off the Saudi Port of Yanbu, underscoring ongoing risks to regional shipping.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended a choppy session flat to slightly lower on Wednesday as the RBI kept its policy rate unchanged at 5.25 percent and retained the policy stance at "neutral" despite signs of rising inflation due to higher crude oil prices and a weaker monsoon season.

The rupee settled 13 paise higher at 95.15 against the U.S. dollar, tracking a weaker American currency in the overseas market.

Foreign institutional investors net sold shares worth Rs. 943.42 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors net bought shares to the extent of Rs. 2,883.17 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

Asian markets were broadly lower this morning as chip stocks faced selling pressure following a sharp pullback in U.S. semiconductor and technology stocks overnight.

Gold traded up more than 1 percent at $4,300 an ounce, rising for a fourth straight session and hitting a seven-week high, driven by softer U.S. labor market data released overnight, a weaker dollar and lower Treasury yields.

Global bond yields eased as traders scaled back their expectations for a September U.S. rate hike. Brent crude futures were modestly higher below $80 a barrel.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight. While the Dow rose half a percent to a record on hopes for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the S&P 500 eased 0.2 percent as data showed U.S. private payrolls growth slowed in July.

Separate data showed U.S. manufacturing continued to expand in July, although momentum remained subdued. Services-sector activity growth came in slightly below market expectations.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.8 percent, marking its first decline in five sessions as SpaceX and AMD both stumbled following their quarterly earnings announcements.

European stocks ended mixed on Wednesday as investors assessed a fresh batch of corporate earnings and closely monitored evolving Middle East developments.

The pan-European STOXX 600 ended flat with a positive bias. While the German DAX dropped 0.3 percent, France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both finished marginally higher.