Market May Open Positive

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets managed to log gains on final day Friday despite a weak expiry of the December series F&O contract this week. The Sensex ended up 33.17 points at 27241 and the Nifty ended up 26.6 points at 8200. During the last week, Sensex down 130 points or 0.48%, while the Nifty down 25 point or 0.30%. The BSE Mid Cap index closed at 10,116 as against the last Friday's close of 10,000, a jump of 1.16%. The BSE Small Cap index ended the week at 10,894 as against the last Friday's closing level of 10,922. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex. The market also suffered a setback after the government was unable to get pass key legislative reform bills during the Winter Session of Parliament.

Globally, the US stock markets were closed ninth positive week in the past ten for the Dow and S&P. After crossing 18,000 for the first time ever, the Dow Jones Industrial Index, finished the week up 1.4%, at 18,053.71. The S&P 500 index gained 0.9%, closing Friday at 2088.77, its 52nd record close of the year. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, edged ever closer to its all-time record, rising 0.9% on the week to 4806.86.

Ahead on next week’s economic calendar, the Case-Shiller home price index, which tracks changes in home prices throughout the U.S., is released Tuesday, along with the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index. The National Association of Realtors will publish its Pending Home Sales Index Wednesday, a leading indicator of future existing home sales. For the month of December 2014 many countries’ HSBC Manufacturing PMI compiled by Markit Economics will be released on Friday including the HSBC PMI of Eurozone, US and France. On Wednesday, Markit will release China HSBC PMI.

Asian markets open high on Monday, following Wall Street gains driven by optimism over the outlook for the US economy, while the euro wallowed near 28 month lows versus the dollar on nervousness ahead of a vote in the Greek parliament that could result in snap elections. Tokyo's Nikkei climbed 0.3% to 17,868. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.70% to 3,211 and The Hang Seng Index gained 1.84%.

SGX Nifty is trading positive with 29.5 points to 8,302. This week we have HSBC Manufacturing PMI data, which is scheduled to be released on January 2, 2015. Besides, auto stocks would be in focus amid release of monthly sales figures from Thursday. Today, we expect a positive opening for Indian Equities.