Indian shares may edge upwards this week

MUMBAI, Aug 31 (AFP) Indian shares may edge upwards this week as worries about rising oil prices and inflationary pressures are expected to ease marginally, after a dip in India's inflation level this week, dealers said. brOn Thursday, India's inflation decelerated to 12.40 per cent for the week to August 16, against 12.63 per cent the previous week. brThis level is however considerably higher than the central bank's end-of-year target of 7.0 per cent. brMuch of the near-term trend will be determined by global trends and oil prices. If local inflation remains rangebound, equities could see some gains, said a dealer with brokerage Jamnadas Morarjee. brFor the week to August 29, the benchmark 30-share Sensex index rose 1.13 per cent, or 163.04 points, to 14,564.53. brIn the absence of any further shock in commodity prices, we expect wholesale inflation to peak-out in the third quarter at 13 per cent to 14 per cent. In the last quarter, we could see significant easing in inflation, said Siddhartha Sanyal, economist with Edelweiss Securities. brAs of Friday's close, overseas funds had sold Indian stocks worth US$7.06 billion. During the same period last year, overseas funds bought $8.49 billion worth of Indian equities.