Indian equity benchmarks started Friday’s session on a positive note as investors await the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy announcement. The gains were led by metal and consumer stocks while tech and financial stocks suffered losses in opening trade.

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NSE

The BSE Sensex rose 222.02 points or 0.37 percent to Rs 59,256.97 and broader Nifty50 index opened at 17,698.15, up 58.6 or 0.33 percent from its previous close.

The broader markets were also in the green with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rising almost half a percent in early trade.

Coal India, UPL, Tata Consumer, Hindalco, Apollo Hospital, JSW Steel, BPCL, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, SBI Life, Britannia and Titan were the top gainers in the Nifty pack, having risen 0.7 to 2.5 percent.

Cipla, Tech Mahindra, TCS, NTPC, ICICI Bank, HDFC, HCL Tech, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC Life, Sun Pharma, and HDFC Bank were among the laggards, having slipped 0.10 to 1.5 percent in early deals.

On the BSE index, heavyweights Reliance, Infosys, Titan and Hindustan Unilever contributed to maximum gains.

“Experts believe the central bank's stance is likely to be dovish to support growth, even as the economy faces a double-whammy of high inflation and slow growth,” Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd told CNBCTV18.com.

A CNBC-TV18 poll of economists and market watchers suggests 90 percent of them expect no action by RBI on the reverse repo rate front which would then set the stage for an eventual repo rate hike.

Meanwhile, given the uncertainties caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and rising commodity prices, inflation projection is a key figure that will be keenly watched.

Global markets

Asian shares were mostly lower Friday as investors eyed the war in Ukraine and what the world's central banks might do to keep inflation in check. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.06 percent, Shanghai index was trading 0.06 percent lower and Hong Kong index dropped 0.5 percent at the time of writing.

Wall Street stocks mostly rose in the overnight session as investors snapped up beaten-down shares, while the US dollar climbed to its highest in nearly two years and the US Treasury 10-year yield touched a three-year high following hawkish Fed signals.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.43 percent and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.06 percent.

Oil prices inched up on Friday but were set to fall around 3 percent for the week after consuming countries agreed to release 240 million barrels of oil from emergency stocks to help offset the disrupted Russian supply.

Brent crude futures rose 0.1 percent to $100.71 a barrel at 0139 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures advanced 0.4 percent to $96.38 a barrel.

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