Indian stocks decline in early trade, July inflation data in focus

NEW DELHI: Indian stocks declined marginally on Friday morning primarily due to profit booking by investors after the recent consistent rally.

At 09:39 IST, Sensex traded at 59,200.27 points, down 132.33 points or 0.22 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 17,624.50 points, down 34.50 points or 0.20 per cent.

Among the Nifty 50 companies, 32 were in the red and the rest 18 in the green, National Stock Exchange data showed. '

Meanwhile, the rally in Indian stock indices has been continuing for the past four weeks on account of the return of foreign portfolio investors after nine long months as well as inflation seemingly plateauing.

Foreign portfolio investors becoming net buyers in Indian stock markets again after nine long months renewed the investors' sentiment.

"It is important to appreciate the fact that FIIs have made a complete turnaround in their strategy in India with sustained buying over the last 10 sessions. And yesterday's buy figure of Rs 2298 cr is the highest in several months," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"This, and the fact that India has the best growth story for this year and the next, will impart resilience to the market," Vijayakumar added.

In the past one month, the indices - Sensex and Nifty - gained around 8-9 per cent each, respectively. For fresh cues, Indian stock market investors will now await retail inflation data for July, which is expected this evening.

In India, retail inflation has been over the Reserve Bank of India's upper tolerance band of 6 per cent for the sixth consecutive month in a row in June. Retail inflation was at 7.01 per cent in June.

Further, companies such as Apollo Tyres, Finolex Cables, ONGC, HAL, and Sun TV will release their Q1 earnings.