Indian shares may open higher on Friday after Yes Bank delivered another quarter of satisfactory performance and the GST Council decided to cut tax rates on 29 products and 53 services, in what is seen as the biggest overhaul since the launch of GST.
On the flip side, Bharti Airtel's quarterly profit fell 39 percent from a year earlier, hit by a cut in interconnection usage charges.
HCL Technologies, HDFC Bank, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, ITC, Kotak Bank and Reliance Industries are among the prominent companies that will unveil their quarterly results later today.
Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty rose half a percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, on Thursday to reach fresh record highs while the rupee extended gains for the second straight session to close marginally higher at 63.86 against the dollar.
Asian stocks are broadly higher this morning on optimism over the global economic outlook and improved corporate earnings. Gold edged up on dollar weakness while oil prices fell further from a three-year high reached on Tuesday.
Overnight, U.S. stocks posted modest losses as downbeat readings on housing starts, building permits and manufacturing as well as concerns about a possible government shutdown and hefty stock valuations kept investors jittery.
The Dow dropped 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 slid 0.2 percent while the Nasdaq Composite closed marginally lower.
European stocks closed on a mixed note Thursday as the euro and the pound sterling held onto their recent gains against the dollar and earnings proved to be a mixed bag.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.2 percent. The German DAX climbed 0.7 percent and France's CAC 40 index ended marginally higher while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.3 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
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