Indian shares set to open marginally higher amid global slide

BENGALURU, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Indian shares are set to open marginally higher on Thursday, amid caution in global equities after Fitchs downgrade of the United States credit rating, while analysts expect further consolidation in the markets.

Indias GIFT Nifty on the NSE International Exchange was up 0.09% at 19,519, as of 8:08 a.m. IST.

Asian markets edged lower on Thursday, following a slide in Wall Street equities overnight, after Fitch cut the U.S. top-tier credit rating to AA+ from AAA-, citing fiscal deterioration.

“The impact on Indian markets should be short-lived for a couple of days,” said Mukesh Kochar, national head of wealth at AUM Capital. \“However, markets across the world are overheated and may find a reason to correct.”

Analysts said that India remained insulated from any ripple effects from the slide in global equities due to strong domestic macroeconomic fundamentals, as seen from record goods and services tax (GST) collection in July.

The Nifty 50 (.NSEI) settled down 1.05% lower on Wednesday, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) lost 1.02%. The weakness spilled over to the broader markets as well, with the domestically linked smallcap index (.NIFSMCP100) and midcaps (.NIFMDCP100) shedding 1.58% and 1.33%, respectively.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold 18.78 billion rupees ($227 million) worth of shares on a net basis on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded 22.3 million rupees of equities, as per provisional NSE data.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

** HPCL (HPCL.NS): Co posts biggest quarterly profit in a decade in June quarter.

** Mankind Pharma (MNKI.NS): Co reports 66% rise in first quarter profit, boosted by sales growth.

** Titan Company (TITN.NS): Co posts fall in net profit in June quarter, dragged by high gold prices.

** FSN E-Commerce (FSNE.NS): Six executives, including the marketing head have resigned since April, co said.

** Key earnings on Thursday: Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS), Eicher Motors (EICH.NS), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (SUN.NS), Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS).

($1 = 82.7310 Indian rupees)