Sensex, Nifty To Open On Upbeat Note As Fed Worries Ease

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open on an upbeat note Monday after five straight sessions of losses.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty suffered their sharpest weekly declines in over two years last week as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued to offload shares amidst uncertainties regarding Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.

Firm cues from global markets may help underpin sentiment today after the Dow and the S&P recorded their biggest single-day percentage gains since November 6 Friday on the back of softer inflation data.

U.S. government shutdown worries also eased after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation to keep the government open through March and the Senate followed suit, sending the funding bill to President Joe Biden's desk.

Global trends, dollar and oil price movements, and foreign investors' trading activity may influence trading sentiment as the holiday-shortened week progresses.

Indian markets will remain closed on Wednesday, December 25, for Christmas.

Asian markets followed Wall Street higher this morning, gold was little changed near $2,620 per ounce and the dollar index was steady while oil steadied after a weekly decline.

U.S. stocks logged strong gains on Friday after the release of softer-than-expected inflation figures.

Data showed PCE Inflation, the Fed's preferred reading on consumer price inflation, has increased 0.1 percent month-on-month in November versus expectations of a 0.2 percent increase.

The annual rate rose to 2.4 percent from 2.3 percent in the previous month but was still below the 2.5 percent anticipated by markets.

The core PCE eased to 0.1 percent from 0.3 percent in October and the yearly rate held steady at 2.8 percent.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told CNBC's Steve Liesman he's hopeful the data suggests "the couple of months of firming were more of a bump than a change in path."

The Dow surged 1.2 percent after having finished marginally higher the previous day to snap a ten-day losing streak.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rallied 1 percent and the S&P 500 added 1.1 percent. European stocks ended lower for a second day running on Friday amid political uncertainty in Germany and France, fears of a U.S. government shutdown and worries about Trump's tariff threats.

The pan European STOXX 600 shed 0.9 percent. The German DAX dipped 0.4 percent, while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both slipped around 0.3 percent.