Pre-Market: Sensex may see a negative opening

The Indian markets may see a negative opening as most of the Asian indices and the pointer SGX Nifty are all trading in the negative.

On the Asian front, Hong Kong stocks began the holiday-shortened week sharply lower, as U.S. fell on Friday over concerns of Egyptian unrest which helped drag Chinese banks lower, and with gains in crude-oil futures pulling down airline stocks. The benchmark Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.3% to 23,236. Nikkei slipped 1.2% to 10,234.

Japanese shares also lost ground, with the Nikkei Stock Average slipped 1.2% to 10,234.The Seoul Composite dropped 1.2% to 2,082. Straits Times was down 1% at 3,197.Meanwhile, Shanghai Composite added marginally to 2,757.

The SGX Nifty is down 92 points at 5,452. Mr. Avinash Gupta, Vice President Research Equity, Bonanza Portfolio Limited says that Nifty has again closed below 200 days simple moving average. The undercurrent is soft and the market is expected to trade with a weak bias. A bounce back from the day’s low is can not be ruled. The market is likely to trade in a range of 5400 to 5700.

The stocks to watch for the day are Dabur India, Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC, Kalpataru Power Transmission and Maruti Suzuki India. Also, Archies is in news for its tie up with Hallmark, the world's largest card maker.