Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty are likely to open marginally higher on Friday, after logging losses in the previous five sessions, with analysts expecting earnings-led stock-specific reactions to guide the intraday trajectory.
The GIFT Nifty was at 24,486 points, as of 8:16 a.m. IST, suggesting that the Nifty 50 index will open slightly above its Thursday's close of 24,406.1.
Weaker-than-expected results from Reliance Industries, Wipro, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank and Nestle have weighed on markets through the course of the week, as did the union budget on Tuesday, in which tax hikes on capital gains in equity investments and derivatives trading were announced.
"Overall, we expect the market to continue seeing incremental moves on Friday with stock-specific action guiding the trajectory given the earnings season is in full swing," said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Tech Mahindra will be in focus after the information technology firm beat its estimates for June-quarter revenue. The company said it expects a "better fiscal year 2025, compared with the previous one."
Asian markets were trading lower on the day, while most Wall Street equities logged losses in a choppy overnight session.
Investors await the U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data - the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation - due after the closing bell to confirm bets of an early start of rate cuts.
Data showed on Thursday that the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in second quarter, keeping intact the expectations that the Fed will begin cutting interest rates in September.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained sellers for the third straight session on Thursday, with the outflows since union budget rising to about $1.3 billion.