Mumbai, Aug 24: Domestic equity markets opened higher on Monday after two straight weekly losses amid decline in crude oil prices, though investors awaited clarity on potential US sanctions on Iran later in the session amid elevated geopolitical tensions.

Nifty opened at 24,285.05, up 33.05 points or 0.14 per cent, while Sensex started at 77,629.56, higher by 88.73 points or 0.11 per cenet.

Metal stocks led sectoral gains with Nifty Metal index rising nearly 1 per cent. Nifty Media gained 0.72 per cent and Nifty Oil & Gas rose 0.59 per cent, while Nifty IT advanced 0.4 per cent. Auto, private banks and financial services indices also were trading positively in early trade.

Meanwhile, Nifty Healthcare fell 0.5 per cent, while Nifty Pharma declined 0.5 per cent. Similarly, consumer durables, realty and FMCG shares were also in negative territory.

Analysts said Nifty could remain range-bound between 24,200 and 24,600 in the near term. While a resilient domestic economy and improving earnings growth provide fundamental support for a rally, elevated crude oil prices and geopolitical risks could cap gains.

“With Brent around $93 and escalating geopolitical tensions associated with the West Asian crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war, any rally is likely to be met with increased selling at higher levels,” they said.

However, the broader continues to see strong investor activity, particularly in companies reporting robust results and offering favourable forward guidance.

Segments such as CDMO, healthcare, precision engineering and power infrastructure are attracting buying interest, although investors have been cautioned against chasing stocks at elevated valuations, the market experts said.

Technically, analysts said a weekly hammer candle on the Nifty reinforced key support levels and kept the reversal setup intact. The headline index could move towards 24,317-24,380 and subsequently 24,400-24,545, provided the 24,060-24,000 support zone holds. Volatility could rise ahead of Tuesday’s F&O expiry.

In the previous session on August 21, domestic institutional investors extended their buying streak to nine consecutive sessions and purchased equities worth Rs 2,124 crore. Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers for a second straight session and offloaded shares worth Rs 543 crore.

Additionally, Asian equities fell on Monday ahead of key events this week, including Nvidia’s earnings announcement and the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium.

In addition, crude oil prices declined up to 2 per cent as investors awaited details of fresh US sanctions on Iran. Tehran has played down the prospect of tighter economic measures. Brent crude was trading around $92 a barrel, down more than 2 per cent, while US WTI slipped below $85 a barrel.

New Delhi, Aug 23: Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are likely to sustain the buying trend amid India’s improving GDP growth and earnings growth perspective, according to analysts.

Total FPI buying stood at Rs 23,543 crore this month (till August 22), of which, Rs 14,117 crore was through exchanges and Rs 9,426 crore was through “primary market and others category”.

The factors that are driving the FPIs back to the Indian market are earnings growth revival as reflected in Q1 results, FPI withdrawal from the ‘chip trade’, rupee stability and the impressive growth prospects of companies in the broader market, said market experts.

“A significant trend in the market is that FPIs are not buying attractively valued leading large banking or IT stocks. Instead, they are selectively buying mid-caps despite elevated valuations,” said Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd.

A headwind, however, is the high bond yields in the US which is negative for equities, he mentioned.

Indian equity markets ended the week on a cautious note, extending their recent corrective phase as elevated crude oil prices, rising global bond yields and persistent geopolitical uncertainty weighed on investor sentiment.

Markets remained volatile, with benchmark indices recovering during the week before ending Friday largely flat as investors continued to assess the global risk environment.

Investors are closely monitoring the US Federal Reserve’s policy outlook, particularly ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium, where monetary policy guidance is expected to remain a key global market catalyst, according to Ajit Mishra–SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd.

Sectoral performance remained mixed, with defensive positioning and stock-specific buying dominating market activity. Realty, metal and banking performed relatively well, supported by improving sentiment towards these segments.

In contrast, IT stocks remained under pressure, declining around 2.6 per cent during the week amid concerns over US inflation, elevated bond yields and the global technology spending environment. FMCG and energy stocks also remained subdued.

On the domestic front, investors will track crude oil prices, rupee movements, foreign institutional flows and domestic liquidity conditions, said analysts.

New Delhi, Aug 22: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday said that authorised dealer banks have raised a massive $72.848 billion in forex inflows till August 21, and a major chuck came from FCNR (B) deposits at $65.397 billion.

External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) and Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings (OFCBs) under Reserve Bank’s Swap facility helped raised another $7.451 billion till August 21.

RBI had introduced a special USD-INR forex swap facility covering FCNR(B) deposits, ECB and OFCB inflows on June 8, 2026.

“As already announced vide Press Release dated August 14, 2026, the Scheme is open till August 31, 2026 for FCNR(B) deposits, and up to December 31, 2026 for ECBs and OFCBs,” The Research Bank said in a statement.

The massive foreign inflows arrive as Indian banks have stepped up their efforts to attract FCNR(B) deposits by offering higher interest rates after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suddenly cut short the deadline for its dollar-rupee swap window to August 31, from September 30.

The swap facility, announced in June to boost the inflow of dollars amid a weakening rupee, was originally available until the end of September, but the RBI abruptly shortened this by a month due to the “encouraging response” to the facility, which resulted in the required amount of foreign exchange flowing into the country.

While there may be valid reasons to justify an early closure of the RBI’s FCNR(B) deposit scheme, the most likely reason could be that the target for dollar mobilisation has already been achieved with inflows at $57 billion, and another $25-30 billion could easily flow in the remaining days of August, taking the total collections to around $85 billion, an SBI Research report said earlier this week.

According to the SBI report, “we don’t believe that the cost of swap could have been a constraining factor”.

“Our estimates show that the cumulative cost would amount to around 15 per cent of the corpus, or $10.5 billion. While this appears sizeable in absolute terms, it needs to be viewed against the scale of India’s foreign-exchange reserves rather than the FCNR(B) corpus alone,” the report argued.

Meanwhile, foreign exchange reserves jumped $9.905 billion to $716.90 billion during the week ended August 14, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday. The latest increase comes a week after the country’s forex reserves had surged by $14.1 billion to $707 billion, marking their highest level in the current financial year.

The rise in reserves was supported by inflows under the RBI’s FCNR(B) deposit scheme, which began to reflect in the country’s foreign exchange reserves.