Indian shares set to open higher on hopes of Fed rate pause

Shares

Indian shares are set to open higher on Monday as rising bets of a rate pause by the U.S. Federal Reserve aided sentiment, ahead of domestic retail inflation data later in the day.

India's NSE stock futures listed on the Singapore Exchange were up 0.37% at 18,679.50, as of 7:57 a.m. IST.

Wall Street equities closed at new highs for 2023 on Friday, on rising odds of a rate hike pause by the U.S. central bank in its upcoming meeting on June 14. [FEDWATCH]

Asian markets were mixed, ahead of rate decisions from the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank, due this week. [MKTS/GLOB]

Investors also await domestic retail inflation data, due post-market hours on Monday.

India's inflation likely cooled to a 20-month low of 4.42% in May as food price rises slowed further, drawing closer to the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target of 4%, a Reuters poll of economists found.

India's central bank kept the repo rate at 6.50% for a second straight meeting last week but indicated that monetary conditions will remain tight to bring inflation down to the 4% target.

Indian shares witnessed profit booking post the RBI policy but closed with weekly gains on Friday. Both benchmarks were below 2% of all-time-high levels.

Foreign institutional investors sold 3.09 billion rupees ($37.44 million) worth of Indian equities on a net basis on Friday, while domestic investors bought 12.46 billion rupees of shares ($151 million), as per provisional NSE data.