Pre-market: Weak opening seen tracking Asian peers

Markets are likely to open lower tracking weakness in their Asian peers

Benchmark share indices are likely to open lower on Monday tracking their Asian peers. However, markets are likely to remain volatile during the week ahead of the September F&O expiry on Thursday.

Further, investment trend by foreign funds, global cues, movement of rupee against the dollar and crude oil price would continue to influence trading at the bourses.

At 8:40AM, the early indicator SGX Nifty was trading 55 points lower at 8,070.

Asian shares were trading lower on Monday as investors turned cautious ahead of key economic data from China. China's flash manufacturing PMI data is due for release on Tuesday. A reading below 50 would indicate signs of contraction in manufacturing.

Japanese shares witnessed profit taking and the benchmark Nikkei was down 0.8%. The Shanghai Composite was also down 0.8% while Hang Seng dropped 1.3%. Further, shares in Singapore were trading with marginal losses with the benchmark Straits Times down 0.2%.

US stocks ended mixed on Friday as gains in Alibaba following a strong debut were overshadowed by losses in tech shares such as Oracle and Yahoo. However,the Dow Jones ended tad higher to end the second straight session with gains.

The Dow Jones ended up 14 points at 17,279.74, the Nasdaq ended down 14 points at 4,579.79 and the broader S&P 500 ended down 1 point at 2,010.40.

Stocks to watch

PNB will be in focus after the bank's Board considered and granted in-principle approval for spilt of existing equity shares of Face Value of Rs.10/- each into 5 Equity Shares of Face Value of Rs. 2/- each. The board also plans to explore the avenues for raising capital through QIP/FPO/Rights Issue.

IPCA Labs will be in focus after media reports said that the Canadian health regulator, Health Canada, has directed the company to stop shipment of active pharmaceutical ingredients to Canada in the wake of adverse observations by the USFDA in July.

Bangalore-based publicly-held infrastructure developer GMR Infrastructure plans to raise Rs 1,500 crore in equity through a rights issue, which, along with the recently-concluded qualified institutional placement issue of Rs 1,500 crore, is expected to ease leverage.

Aegis Logistics announced that it will sell 40% stake in its Singapore arm, Aegis Group International Pte Ltd to ITOCHU Petroleum Co for a consideration of $5.85 million.