Indian shares set to open lower; domestic inflation data in focus

BENGALURU, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Indian shares on Monday are expected to start on a slightly weaker note in the holiday-truncated week as earnings season draws to a close, ahead of domestic retail inflation data due later in the day.

Indias GIFT Nifty on the NSE International Exchange was down 0.28% at 19,432 at 7.58 a.m. IST.

Indias retail inflation likely accelerated to 6.40% in July on surging food prices, breaching the upper end of the Reserve Bank of Indias 2%-6% tolerance band for the first time in five months, a Reuters poll of economists found.

Corporate earnings season will likely end on Monday, with consumer giant ITC (ITC.NS) and telecom service provider Vodafone Idea (VODA.NS) among hundreds of companies scheduled to report quarterly results.

The benchmark Nifty 50 (.NSEI) settled 0.59% lower on Friday at 19,428.30, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) settled 0.56% lower at 65,322.65.

The Nifty 50 fell 0.45% last week, logging losses for the third week in a row.

Meanwhile, wider Asian shares struggled on Monday ahead of China data that is likely to amplify the case for serious stimulus even as Beijing seems deaf to the calls.

Foreign investors sold shares worth 30.73 billion Indian rupees ($370.80 million) on Friday, according to provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE). In contrast, domestic institutional investors were net buyers, adding 5 billion rupees of shares.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

** Adani Ports (APSE.NS) on Saturday named MSKA & Associates as its auditor in place of Deloitte and said it found the reasons cited by Deloitte for resigning \“not convincing\”

** Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC.NS) on Friday reported 34% fall in Q1 profit

** Jindal Steel and Power (JNSP.NS) reported a 15% drop in first-quarter profit on Friday, hurt by a rise in expenses and fall in steel prices

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($1 = 82.8740 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng

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