Sensex, Nifty Likely To Have A Strong Opening

The domestic stock markets are likely to start the week on a strong note, following robust gains in Asian markets and positive signals from Singapore Nifty futures trading. Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a gap-up opening for the index in India, with a 105 points gain. At 7:30 am, the Nifty futures were trading at 10,283, higher by 105 points or 1.05 per cent, on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Asian shares dozed near recent highs in quiet trade on Monday as investors waited to see if the recent sell-off in longer-dated U.S. Treasuries would extend, and maybe take some pressure off the beleaguered dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.02 per cent lower at 562, while Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.4 per cent after touching a six-month peak on Friday.

On Friday, the S&P 500 ended nearly flat on Friday despite coming close again to its record closing high, as data on the U.S. economy added to uncertainty over the recovery. The Dow Jones rose 0.12 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.02 per cent and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.21 per cent.

Oil prices climbed higher on Monday, lifted by China's plans to ship in large volumes of U.S. crude in August and September, outweighing concerns over a slowdown in demand recovery after the coronavirus pandemic and an uptick in supplies.

Brent crude rose 21 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $45.01 a barrel by 0023 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 27 cents, or 0.6 per cent, to $42.28 a barrel.

Meanwhile, data released by the government late Friday evening showed that India posted a trade deficit of $4.83 billion in goods in July, after reporting its first trade surplus in over 18 years in the previous month,

The BSE Sensex had closed with a minor cut of 0.4 per cent and the Nifty had shed 0.3 per cent in the week ended August 14.