Indian shares edged higher on Monday, led by mining stocks as Chinese markets returned after a week-long break and as investors saw a slimmer chance of victory for Republican Party nominee Donald Trump in his U.S. presidential bid.
Global risk appetite improved, with Asian stocks and U.S. stock futures creeping higher after a controversy over Trump's vulgar comments about women raised expectations that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton would win the White House in the Nov. 8 election.
The broader NSE index was up 0.32 percent at 8,725.06 as of 0532 GMT, after falling 0.82 percent over the past three sessions, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.19 percent higher at 28,113.45.
The daily stock trading volume was weak ahead of public holidays on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12. The NSE Nifty saw less than a quarter of the 5-day average volume in the first two hours of trading.
The next key trigger will be July-September results starting Oct. 13, said traders, adding the earnings recovery was likely to strengthen due to improvement in the economy and consumption trends.
"General impression is that Clinton is a better President for the whole world... But there's no point building hopes based on a single event, we'll have to wait till the third debate and getting closer to the elections when a lot of fence sitters make up their mind," said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.
"For now, our markets don't have any trigger to rise sharply from here, so we're seeing some consolidation ahead of earnings announcement."
This week, software services provider Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys are due to report their quarterly results.
Mining stocks such as Hindalco Industries and Vedanta Ltd rose 2.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, on Monday.
The Nifty Metal index was up 1.7 percent, tracking strength in global metal prices after the world's biggest metals consumer China returned after a break.
Excel Crop Care rose 1.9 percent after the company said on Friday promoters have completed the transfer of a 44.98 percent stake to Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co.
IRB Infrastructure Developers fell 1.7 percent after the company said on Friday the Maharashtra State Road Development Corp had terminated the Mumbai-Pune Phase II project awarded to its unit.