Key benchmarks may see flat opening

The Indian benchmark indices on Friday opened the session on a weak note and extended their weakness in the first half of the trading session. However, the indices clawed back into green terrain in the second half of trading session and ended the session with nominal gains. The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty ended with marginal gains of about 17 points to settle at 9521, while the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index or Sensex gained 64 points to settle at 30,092.

European markets ended Friday's session in the red. Bank of Greece downgraded its growth outlook for 2017, mentioning negative carry over from the end of 2016. In its monetary policy report released on Friday, the bank said the economy will grow only 1.6 per cent this year, instead of the previously forecasted growth of 2.5 per cent. The DAX of Germany dropped 0.73 per cent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.65 per cent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. declined 0.51 per cent.

The US stocks closed mostly higher on Friday. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended in the positive territory, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back into negative territory. The Dow rose 63 points to 21,350. The S&P 500 gained 4 points to 2,423. The Nasdaq edged down 4 points to 6,140. 
 
Asian shares were trading mixed in early trade on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has moved higher by 36 points; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has shed 43 points, while China’s Shanghai Composite has slipped by 4 points.
 
At 8:10 am, SGX Nifty index is trading with minor gains of 8 points at 9,526, indicating a flat start for Indian indices.