Weak opening seen tracking sell-off in Asia

Asian markets witnessed sharp slide tracking a sell-off on Wall Street on Friday

Markets are likely to open marginally lower on Monday tracking weakness in their Asian peers and sell-off on Wall Street over the weekend.

At 8:40am, the SGX Nifty was down 9 points at 7,432.

Foreign institutional investors continue to remain sellers in equities with net sales of Rs 1,124 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

GLOBAL MARKETS

US stocks witnessed a sharp sell-off on Friday after crude oil prices tumbled below $30 per barrel and economic growth concerns in China. The technology and energy sectors were the top losers. The energy sector eased tracking weakness in crude oil prices while sluggish quarterly results from Intel dampened sentiment for the technology sector. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 2.4% to end below 16,000 at 15,988, the broader S&P 500 dropped 2.2% to 1,880 and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite ended down 2.7% at 4,488.

Asian stocks slumped on Monday tracking a sell-off on Wall Street over the weekend as discouraging US with decline in US retail sales and drop in industrial output in December. Meanwhile, China's Shanghai Composite rebounded after dropping nearly 2% in early trades. The benchmark index was down 0.7% while Hang Seng and Straits Times eased 1.7%. Japan's Nikkei was down 2% after slumping nearly 3% in early trades.

STOCKS IN FOCUS

Wipro will be in focus after Q3 IT servcices revenues were below estimates. Dollar revenues witnessed a flat sequential growth at $1,838 million.

LIC Housing Finance may firm up after profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 was up 20% year-on-year.

Aurobindo Pharma may be in focus after the company said it has received USFDA approval for Tranexamic Acid injection which is dispensed for treating short-term control of bleeding in hemophiliacs, including dental extraction procedures. The company also said it has received approval for Paricalcitol Capsules.

Indian Hotels Company announced 84% decline in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 31. The Mumbai-based company clocked net profit of Rs 10.05 crore for the reporting quarter as against Rs 61.84 crore reported in the same quarter last year.

Karnatka Bank may be under pressure after Gross NPAs in the third quarter increased to 3.56% compared to 3.16% in the previous quarter.

Oberoi Realty may gain after consolidated profit after tax for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 surged to Rs 209 crore compared with Rs 79 crore for the same quarter last fiscal.