Sensex, Nifty Likely To See Muted Start

(RTTNews) - Indian shares may see a muted start on Monday, with lingering geopolitical tensions, uncertainty over the U.S. election outcome and continued FII selling likely to keep investors anxious.

Indian markets ended the special Diwali Muhurat trading session higher on Friday amid across-the-board gains. The 30-share BSE Sensex and the broader NSE Nifty index both edged up by 0.4 percent.

Asian stocks were seeing modest gains in cautious trading this morning, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday.

The dollar dipped as investors braced for the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday and the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision on Thursday.

According to polls, Democrat candidate Kamala Harris and Republican opponent Donald Trump are in a tight presidential race for the White House.

The U.S. central bank is widely expected to cut interest rate for a second time this year as inflation continues to ease.

Gold held steady after Iran threatened to use powerful warheads against Israel in its next attack in the coming days.

Oil extended recent gains as OPEC+ agreed to delay a planned December oil output increase by one month.

U.S. stocks ended firmly in positive territory on Friday as upbeat earnings news from Amazon and Intel helped investors look past a disappointing jobs report.

Data showed the U.S. economy added just 12,000 jobs in October, marking the weakest level of jobs creation since December 2020 after a downwardly revised 223,000 jobs in September, impacted by hurricanes and labor strikes. The jobless rate held at 4.1 percent, in line with estimates.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.8 percent, the Dow gained 0.7 percent and the S&P 500 added 0.4 percent.

European stocks closed higher on Friday after some fairly strong corporate earnings announcements.

The pan European STOXX 600 rallied 1.1 percent. The German DAX climbed 0.9 percent while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both surged around 0.8 percent.