Indian shares are seen opening little changed on Monday as investors wait for the Reserve Bank of India's policy meet due at 11 am for direction. There is pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates, but most analysts expect the RBI to refrain from further easing, given the rupee's steep fall recently and growing worries over the country's high current account deficit.
Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty fell over a percent each last week, as a declining rupee and weak global cues on apprehensions about the Federal Reserve's future policy stance prompted some foreign institutional investors to offload stocks.
In corporate news, the proposal of the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways to acquire a 24 percent stake in Jet Airways has been deferred by the FIPB.
Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma came out strongly in support of liberalization of the foreign direct policy in telecom as well as defense sector.
Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus Tata Group, has been appointed Chief Advisor to the board of low-cost carrier AirAsia India, a joint venture between the Tata Group, Malaysian airline AirAsia and Arun Bhatia.
Asian Markets
The Asian markets are trading mostly higher, although investors remain cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting scheduled for June 18-19. Japanese shares are outperforming, with the benchmark Nikkei rising 1.2 percent as the yen weakened against the dollar. U.S. crude futures are edging lower after climbing to a four-month high at the end of last week.
U.S. And European Markets
U.S. stocks ended firmly in the red on Friday, with disappointing industrial production and consumer confidence data weighing on the markets following the previous session's rally. The Dow slid 0.7 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 dropped about 0.6 percent each. Industrial output came in unchanged in May, while consumer sentiment eased from a six-year high in June, separate reports showed.
European stocks finished to the upside on Friday with lackluster employment data from the euro zone tempering optimism the Fed isn't close to raising short-term interest rates. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 and the SMI of Switzerland edged up about 0.1 percent each, while France's CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent and the German DAX advanced 0.4 percent.
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