Indian shares set to open higher as oil eases and RBI supports rupee

Indian shares are set to open higher on Monday, building on Friday's rebound that ended the Nifty 50's longest weekly losing streak in 25 years. GIFT Nifty futures were at 22,624.5 at 7:53 a.m. IST, pointing to a positive start for the Nifty 50, which closed at 22,520.45 on Friday.

Brent crude futures fell 1.6% to $103 a barrel after US President Donald Trump said Ukraine and Russia had agreed to halt attacks on each other's energy facilities, following a US diesel-supply deal with Moscow. The move eased immediate supply pressure, though the Middle East conflict kept crude above $100 a barrel, capping sentiment.

Over the weekend the Reserve Bank of India unveiled fresh measures to shore up the rupee, redirecting oil companies' dollar purchases away from the spot market and tightening hedging rules, with the currency hovering near record lows. Those steps to curb spot-dollar demand ease currency volatility, helping temper inflation and foreign outflows — both supportive for equity-market sentiment.

Pabitro Mukherjee, deputy vice president of research at Bajaj Broking, said the recent rebound after an eight-week losing streak was encouraging but not sufficient to confirm a sustained recovery, and that at that stage it appeared more like a relief rally. He added that the market needed stronger price action and supportive macroeconomic developments to establish a durable uptrend.

The Nifty and Sensex rose 0.4% and 0.8% last week, helped by upbeat quarterly updates from financials and a gain in IT company Tata Consultancy Services, whose earnings underscored a growing AI-related revenue contribution. Foreign portfolio investors sold domestic stocks for 11 straight sessions, with outflows of 35.69 billion Indian rupees on Friday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth a net 47.43 billion rupees ($490.18 million), according to NSE provisional data.