Indian shares are seen opening slightly lower on Monday, tracking weak Asian cues as concerns linger over Europe despite surveys showing a lead in opinion polls for Greece's conservatives ahead of a repeat nation election on June 17.
The Seoul market is closed for a holiday and key benchmark indexes in Australia and Taiwan are posting modest gains, while the other markets in the Asia-Pacific region are trading in the red.
Closer home, investors await diesel and LPG price hike as it will send a positive signal to the markets and help strengthen the economy and the rupee. In stock-specific action, Coal India could be in focus on reports the Odisha state government has slapped a fine of Rs.1,306 crore on Mahanadi Coalfield, a subsidiary of the state-run miner for alleged illegal mining in the Ib valley area. Reliance Communication may also be in focus after it posted a fourth-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates.
On Wall Street, stocks ended yet another lackluster session in the red on Friday, with traders staying away from making new bets ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from Reuters and the University of Michigan which showed that the U.S. consumer sentiment index for May was upwardly revised to 79.3 from the mid-month reading of 77.8, surprising economists who had expected the index to come in unchanged.
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