Indian Shares Seen Opening On Cautious Note

(RTTNews) - Indian shares may open flat to slightly lower on Tuesday as investors keep a close eye on developments in the Middle East and await crucial U.S. inflation data this week, which could influence expectations around the Federal Reserve's September policy decision.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty both fell around half a percent each on Monday, with IT stocks bearing the brunt of the selling after OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, a new-generation model described as the company's most intelligent and aligned model to date.

The rupee dropped 7 paise to end at 94.50 against the U.S. dollar, pressured by rising oil prices amid escalating Middle East tensions and weakness in domestic equity markets.

Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers of Indian equities and bought shares worth Rs 280.13 crore on a net basis Monday, while domestic institutional investors net bought shares to the extent of Rs 566.76 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

Asian markets were mixed this morning due to inflation and interest-rate concerns. South Korea's Kospi was up nearly 2 percent amid continued strength in semiconductor stocks.

Gold rose half a percent to $4,428 an ounce due to a weakening U.S. dollar on fiscal concerns. Brent crude futures were little changed above $97 a barrel after briefly breaching $98 a barrel in the previous session.

Saudi Arabia's Jazan refinery was reportedly hit again Monday in what is likely to be another Houthi attack on one of the Red Sea's largest oil processing plants, but the damage was limited.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has warned the U.S. that any new U.S. attacks on Iran's oil and gas assets will draw a reciprocal response, stressing that energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf, including U.S. oil and gas facilities, are vulnerable.

Separately, Mohsen Rezaei, a senior Iranian security official, has warned that if the U.S. continued to wage "economic warfare" against Iran, it will be met by a maritime exclusion zone across the Persian Gulf to the blockade perimeter.

Traders also watched for details of an Iranian deal with Oman to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. stock markets were closed on Monday for Labor Day holiday.

European stocks ended mixed on Monday due to inflation worries and political unrest in Germany.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended little changed. The German DAX slipped 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 eased 0.1 percent while France's CAC 40 rose 0.3 percent.