(RTTNews) – Indian shares look set to open on a positive note Monday ahead of central bank meetings in the U.S., Japan and the U.K. due later in the week.
Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended Friday’s session marginally lower due to profit booking at higher levels.
Asian stocks struggled for direction this morning, with markets in mainland China, South Korea and Japan closed for holidays.
Growth worries returned to haunt investors after Chinese factory output, retail sales and investment numbers for August all missed expectations.
The yen held firm against the dollar and gold edged higher on expectations of a more aggressive rate cut by the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting this week while oil held steady, after having eked out its first weekly gain in a month.
U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday amid growing expectations of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks.
Sentiment was aided after a survey showed consumer sentiment rose to a four-month high in early September and one-year inflation expectations fell for the fourth straight month.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7 percent and the S&P 500 added half a percent to log their best weekly gains of 2024 while the Dow climbed 0.7 percent.
European stocks advanced on Friday after former New York Fed President Bill Dudley said that there was a strong case for a 50-basis point reduction.
The pan European STOXX 600 jumped 0.8 percent. The German DAX rallied 1 percent, while France’s CAC 40 and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 both rose about 0.4 percent.
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