Indian shares are seen opening notably higher on Tuesday after the German and French finance chiefs pledged their support for efforts to keep debt-stricken Greece within the eurozone, although opinions remain divided over ways to resolve the region's debt crisis.
France's new finance minister Pierre Moscovici and his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble made the stand of their governments clear at a joint news conference in Berlin after holding talks in the German capital on Monday.
The two ministers also discussed the idea of introducing the so-called Eurobonds in the eurozone to fight the debt crisis, which will be discussed in detail at Wednesday's informal European Council meeting. Schaeuble reaffirmed Berlin's opposition to the idea, while Moscovici favored the instrument.
Asian markets are rising across the board, with key benchmark indexes in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea gaining between 0.7 percent and 1.2 percent. Commodities are also moving higher and the euro gained versus the dollar, buoyed by gains in European and U.S. stocks overnight.
U.S. stocks posted strong gains overnight benefiting from bargain hunting following recent selling, which dragged the major averages down to four-month closing lows on Friday. The Dow rose 1.1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 2.5 percent and the S&P 500 gained 1.6 percent.
Closer home, shares ended off their day's highs on Monday,as a weaker rupee triggered hectic selling in late-session trading. The BSE Sensex closed with a meager gain of 30 points or 0.19 percent at 16,183, while the broader Nifty index rose 15 points or 0.3 percent to 4,906.
The rupee hit a new low of 55.04 against the dollar yesterday, with fresh dollar demand from banks and importers and signs of no definite RBI intervention weighing on the currency.
Provisional data released by BSE shows that foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in Indian equities and offloaded shares worth Rs.79.59 crore yesterday, while domestic financial institutions bought shares to the extent of Rs.149.20 crore.
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