Pre-market: Gap down opening seen, sell-off across Asia

Markets are expected to make a gap down opening due to weakness across Asia as Japan's concerns grew further after third explosion at one of the nuclear reactors. The Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange plunged 177 points, at 5385.

Japan's problems are expected to spin out of control after the explosion at one of the nuclear units at Fukushima Daiichi making it hard for operators to prevent nuclear radation leak. Investors continued to dump Japanese stocks on fears that Japan may slip into a recession. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 6.5%.

China's Shanghai Composite dipped 1.9%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 3.2% on back of broad based losses. Singapore's Straits Times fell 3.1%, Seoul Composite was off 1.9% and Taiwan Weighted declined 1.9%.

Back in India, markets may continue to remain volatile on account of advance tax numbers expected today. Commodity related shares especially metal and material shares will be watched closely on expectations of reconstruction opportunities in Japan. Easing crude prices may give fillip to oil marketing companies in the opening trade.