Indian shares open higher led by metal stocks

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares opened higher on Monday, aided by a rebound in metal stocks after a sharp slide last week, although a rise in oil prices and concerns over a prolonged high rate regime in the United States capped gains.

The Nifty 50 index was up 0.40% at 17,875.80, as of 09:30 a.m. IST, and the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.41% to 60,093.65.

Barring pharma, all the major sectoral indexes advanced, with metal rising over 1% having shed over 4% in the previous session.

Asian markets recovered from a mixed start in the last week of the year, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index rising 0.23%. [MKTS/GLOB]

Wall Street equities settled to a moderately higher close on Friday after data showed U.S. consumer spending barely rose in November, while annual inflation increased at its slowest pace in 13 months.

However, demand is probably not cooling fast enough to discourage the Fed from rate hikes next year, which investors fear may end up pushing the economy into a recession.

Capping the gains in domestic equities were also higher oil prices, which rose after Russia said it could cut crude output in response to the G7 price cap on Russian exports. Brent crude hovered around $84. [O/R]

Higher oil prices hurt oil-importing countries like India, where crude constitutes the bulk of the country's import bill.

($1 = 82.8700 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Eileen Soreng)