Nifty Seen Opening Above 16,500; Maruti Suzuki, Eicher Motors In Focus

The National Stock Exchange benchmark index - NSE Nifty50 index - is set to stage a gap up opening as indicated by the Nifty futures traded on Singapore Exchange amid strong trend in other Asian markets. Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange also known as the SGX Nifty futures rose 94 points to 16,589. Meanwhile, Asian stocks rose on Tuesday on an extended bounce on Wall Street as investors drew comfort from full approval granted to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and on easing worries of an imminent tapering of stimulus by the Federal Reserve.

Asian shares were trading higher as the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.2 per cent. Japan and South Korean indices advanced more than a per cent.

Wall Street's strength underpinned sentient in Asia. The Nasdaq reached an all-time closing high after the US Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, in a move that could accelerate inoculations in the United States.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,363.36 crore while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1,452.51 on Monday.

Maruti Suzuki will be in focus after the CCI imposed a penalty of Rs 200 crore on the company for restricting discounts by dealers. The company was penalised for "indulging in anti-competitive conduct of Resale Price Maintenance in the passenger vehicle segment by way of implementing Discount Control Policy," the regulator said.

Eicher Motors will be in focus after its board re-appointed Siddhartha Lal as managing director of the company.