The Indian equity benchmarks are set to open on a flat note as indicated by the Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision due later in the day.
The Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange also known as SGX Nifty futures rose 7 points to 16,317.
The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee is expected to leave interest rates at record lows for a seventh straight meeting and the markets will focus on what it says about normalising liquidity.To help the economy through the hard times caused by the pandemic, the RBI has maintained excess rupee liquidity in the banking system with the daily surplus currently exceeding Rs 6 lakh crore.While most analysts reckon the RBI won't raise interest rates till next year, some expect the RBI to offer some clues as to when it will start reducing liquidity in a commentary that is released after the monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting.All 61 economists polled by Reuters said they see no change in the repo rate which has been steady at 4% since May last year.Meanwhile, Asian shares failed to catch a firm lead from a bumper Wall Street session on Friday as the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus across the region heightened worries about the its economic recovery.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.35%, dragged down by Chinese blue chips, which fell 0.56% and Hong Kong down 0.46%.Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 719.88 crore on Thursday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 732 crore.Reliance Industries will be in focus after its subsidiary Reliance Strategic Business Ventures (RSBVL) invested Rs 20 crore in Neolync Solutions.Maruti Suzuki will be on investors' radar after its total production in July increased by 58.5 per cent on a yearly basis to 170,719 units.