Equities are set to open higher on Friday, putting them on course for a 14th straight weekly gain for the first time in four years, as solid US economic data rekindled hopes the world economy was healing.
India's industrial output is likely to have shrunk marginally in April from a year earlier, its fourth fall in five months, but analysts think the worst has passed and output will start picking up. The data is expected around noon.
Fraud-hit outsourcer Satyam Computer, which has jumped 10 per cent on each of the past three sessions after releasing figures that showed it was profitable, will be watched after its chairman said the company was under great stress and its revenue outlook was not great in the near future.
Oil and Natural Gas Corp will be in focus after its chairman said on Thursday the state-run explorer may have suffered a 30 billion rupee ($632 million) loss of revenue for selling gas at government-fixed prices in 2008/09.
Most Asian markets were higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei up 0.9 per cent by 0351 GMT, while MSCI's measure of other Asian markets was flat. US retail sales rose in May for the first time in three months and the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits last week hit a January low, fostering hope the recession was abating. Nifty futures traded in Singapore were up 0.4 per cent, pointing to a higher opening in India. On Thursday, the 30-share BSE index ended down 0.36 per cent, or 55.34 points, at 15,411.47, as investors pocketed a portion of profits from a three-month rally that had boosted the benchmark more than 90 per cent.
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