BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's benchmark indexes are set to open higher on Friday, with better-than-expected results from Nifty 50 components Bajaj Finance and IndusInd Bank boosting sentiment.
India's GIFT Nifty was trading at 22,697 as of 08:36 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open above its Thursday's close of 22,570.35.
The benchmark Nifty and S&P BSE Sensex indexes have risen in each session so far this week, gained about 2%, helped by mostly in-line corporate earnings and easing concerns over escalations in the Middle East tensions.
Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have been net buyers in 11 of the last 12 sessions, cushioning the outflows from foreign investors due to rising U.S. Treasury yields on fading hopes of early U.S. rate cuts.
Mostly in-line earnings, hopes of a majority win for the ruling party in the upcoming elections has been drawing out a lot of domestic investors to take exposure to equities, said Prashant Tapse, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities.
Non-bank lender Bajaj Finance and private lender IndusInd Bank both posted higher-than-expected quarterly profits.
However, fellow Nifty 50-member Tech Mahindra missed estimates, continuing a dour run of results from IT companies.
Besides weak spending by U.S. and European clients, IT stocks have also been under pressure due to fading hopes of imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts.
Those fears remained after hotter-than-expected core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) data for the first quarter.
Asian markets were higher ahead of Bank of Japan's rate decision.
STOCKS TO WATCH:
** L&T Technology Services: Company met March quarter revenue expectations, helped by strong deal wins.
** UTI Asset Management: Company reported rise in consolidated net profit in March quarter.
** InterGlobe Aviation: Company placed order for 30 Airbus A350 wide-body aircraft in bet on long-haul routes.
** Key earnings: HCLTech, Maruti Suzuki India, Shriram Finance.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
