Indian Shares Set To Follow Asian Markets Higher

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are likely to open higher on Monday, tracking firm global cues, after data showed U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest decline in six years in December and underlying inflation pressures were benign, complicating plans for the U.S. Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates.

Investors will be watching closely oil price movements after Brent crude prices surged more than 5 percent on Friday, the most since June 2012, in reaction to an upbeat report on U.S. consumer sentiment. Prices were also boosted after the International Energy Agency said the recent collapse in oil prices will likely curtail non-OPEC oil production this year.

On the earnings front, energy giant Reliance Industries reported a 4.5 percent year-over-year decline in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December, matching street expectations. On the other hand, Wipro, India's third-largest IT services exporter, reported a healthy all round performance for the December quarter on the back of growth in infrastructure and healthcare outsourcing services.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex soared 663.51 points or 2.41 percent to settle at 28,121.89 last week and the broader Nifty index jumped 229.30 points or 2.76 percent to finish at 8,513.80 after the Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly cut its repurchase rate by 25 basis points and signaled it could do more if the current inflation momentum and changes in inflation expectations continue, and fiscal developments are encouraging.

Asian stocks are broadly higher, led by resource stocks, as oil prices rebounded and a gauge of U.S. consumer sentiment jumped to an 11-year high in January due to plunging gas prices and increased pace of hiring. The benchmark indexes in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea are up between 0.3 percent and 0.9 percent.

China's Shanghai Composite is tumbling 4.4 percent, dragged down by brokerages, after China's securities regulator took measures to rein in margin trading at certain brokerage companies.

On Wall Street, the major averages snapped a five-session losing streak on Friday as the price of crude oil swung higher and investors digested a slew of mixed data showing a modest pullback in industrial production, a surge in consumer confidence and weakening core inflation.

Traders grew more optimistic that a benign inflationary and commodity environment will make the case for delaying the 1st interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve. The Dow rallied 1.1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.4 percent and the S&P 500 climbed 1.3 percent.

The European markets also closed firmly in positive territory on Friday, extending their previous session's gains, after a ruling by the European Court of Justice paved the way for the ECB to join other leading central banks in conducting monetary stimulus to combat deflation in the euro zone and safeguard against a possible Greek exit. The German DAX soared 1.4 percent, France's CAC 40 advanced 1.3 percent and the FTSE 100 of the U.K. added 0.8 percent.