India’s benchmark indexes are set to open marginally higher on Wednesday, the first session of 2025, with analysts expecting the markets to trade near current levels ahead of the quarterly earnings season from next week.

The GIFT Nifty futures were trading at 23,735 as of 7:54 a.m. IST, indicating that the benchmark Nifty 50 would open slightly above Tuesday’s close of 23,644.8.

Other Asian markets declined on the day, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index shedding 0.5 per cent, as elevated US Treasury yields continued to weigh on emerging markets.

Expectations of fewer US rate cuts in 2025 have led to a stronger US dollar and a rise in US Treasury yields, which have intensified foreign outflows from emerging markets such as India, three analysts said.

The benchmark Nifty and Sensex indexes blazed to record highs in the first few months of 2024, but slowing corporate earnings and an exodus of foreign funds curtailed their annual gains to about 8.5 per cent, the least among major global peers, and even pushed stocks into correction territory.

These factors, along with high yields will persist in the new year, analysts said.

“The monthly auto sales data and pre-quarterly business updates to be released this week will be crucial for Indian markets as they will provide insights into the upcoming results season,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research of wealth management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) offloaded shares on the last day of 2024, taking their selling streak to 11 sessions in a row, while domestic institutional investors bought shares in the last 10 sessions.

Stocks to watch

** SJVN signs a deal with a state government to develop a 1000 MW pumped storage project

** Kalpataru Projects secures orders worth 10.11 billion rupees

** Dynacons Systems and Solutions wins orders worth 2.8 billion rupees ($32.73 million)

** Automakers will be in focus ahead of monthly sales data for December ($1 = 85.5540 Indian rupees)