India's key stock market indices open higher on Monday

Key Indian equity market indices opened in the green on Monday, tracking the Asian peers, as the sentiments were boosted by the likely movement forward in the passage of the long-awaited bill to introduce a pan-India goods and services regime.

Against the previous close at 25,638.11 points, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 25,746.03 points.

Within minutes of trading, the key index was ruling at 25,727.34 points, with a gain of 89.23 points, or 0.35 percent.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share Nifty was ruling at 7,806.90 points with a gain of 25 points, or 0.32 percent.

During the week ended last Friday, the 30-share Sensex declined 1.87 percent, while the Nifty was down 2.02 percent.

In the Asia Pacific region, an all-round firming up was seen on Monday -- Japan's Nikkei by 1.5 percent, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 0.13 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng by 0.2 percent, China's Shanghai Composite by 0.1 percent and South Korean Kopsi by 0.1 percent.

"The US markets moved upwards during Friday's session, after the sell-off that was seen in prior session," Angel Broking said in a pre-market analysis, as analysts said the mood in India would also be governed by the position taken by foreign funds on the US call on interest rates.

"The rally was partly due to bargain hunting and also due to stronger non-farm payroll employment numbers reported by the labour department, which increased by 211,000 jobs in November, as against the estimates of 190,000," the brokerage said.

The European markets, on the other hand, had ended Friday's on a mixed note.