Domestic benchmarks were muted on Monday as investors awaited inflation data, due later in the day, for clues on the RBI’s interest rate trajectory and ahead of a slew of corporate earnings reports.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.1 per cent to 18,366, while the S&P BSE Sensex, which hit a record closing high on Friday, rose 0.19 per cent to 61,909.51 in early trade.
A Reuters poll showed economists expect retail price inflation slowed to 6.73 per cent in October, due to weaker food price rises and a strong base year, but remained stubbornly above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) 6 per cent upper limit.
In early trading, Nifty's IT and metal indexes were among the top-performing sectors, gaining 0.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. The pharma and public sector bank indexes dropped nearly one per cent.
Life Insurance Corporation of India rose 7.3 per cent on after reporting a surge in quarterly profit.
More than 1,000 companies are scheduled to report results later in the day. These include low-cost carrier SpiceJet , drugmaker Biocon, tyre manufacturer Apollo Tyres as well as conglomerates Godrej Industries and Grasim Industries.
Foreign institutional investors bought a net of ₹3,958 crore of equities on Friday, while domestic investors bought ₹616 crore of shares, as per provisional data available with the National Stock Exchange.