Indian shares are likely to open at record highs on Monday after data showed the country's economic growth outperformed major economies despite slowing down, while investors eye auto stocks after monthly sales data released over the weekend.
The GIFT Nifty was trading at 25,416 points as of 7:24 a.m. IST, indicating that the NSE Nifty 50 will open higher than its previous close of 25,235.9.
The Nifty rose for the twelfth consecutive session on Friday, in its longest-ever rally, pushing the market to a fresh high on hopes of an imminent U.S. interest rate cut this month.
Investors' focus will be on auto stocks after Tata Motors reported an 8% drop in August domestic vehicle sales, while Maruti Suzuki posted a near-4% slide.
Meanwhile, TVS Motor said its August domestic two-wheeler sales grew 13%, and Hero MotoCorp's domestic sales rose nearly 5%.
India's economic growth in the April-June quarter grew 6.7% year-on-year, easing from a 7.8% growth in the previous quarter, but remained the world's fastest-growing major economy.
The GDP print shows that the growth momentum continued in the first-quarter, despite an usual seasonal slowdown and the country's national general election's effect, said Sakshi Gupta, Principal Economist at HDFC Bank.
Broader Asian share markets got off to a quiet start on Monday as investors braced for a data-packed week culminating in a U.S. jobs report that could decide whether a rate cut expected this month will be regular or super-sized. [MKTS/GLOB]
STOCKS TO WATCH
** Biocon: co's unit got approval for Abbreviated New Drug Application of Daptomycin injection from the U.S. FDA.
** NBCC: approved issuance of bonus shares in 1:2 ratio
** Brainbees Solutions: reported a narrowed first-quarter loss on strong demand for baby care products.