Sensex, Nifty Likely To Drift Lower In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - Indian shares look set to open a tad lower on Monday after declining for three straight weeks in a row.

A cautious undertone may prevail due to continued foreign fund flows, tariff uncertainties and concerns over slowing corporate earnings growth.

The next batch of Q3 earnings, expectations surrounding upcoming Budget, the monthly F&O expiry and caution ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision may sway markets as the week progresses.

Asian markets traded mixed this morning, giving up some early gains after the release of disappointing Chinese industrial profits, manufacturing and non-manufacturing data.

The dollar gained after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs and sanctions on Colombia for impeding his immigration goals. Gold ticked lower on dollar strength.

Oil prices fell over 1 percent after Trump on Friday reiterated his call for OPEC to cut oil prices to hut hurt oil-rich Russia's finances and help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday but notched back-to-back weekly gains on optimism over Trump's pro-business policies and his calls for lower interest rates and oil prices.

In economic releases, U.S. consumer sentiment declined in January for the first time in six months while existing home sales rose to a 10-month high in December, separate reports revealed.

The S&P 500 ended 0.3 percent lower after hitting a new record earlier in the session. The Dow also dipped 0.3 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed half a percent.

European stocks ended on a flat note Friday, failing to hold early gains. The pan European STOXX 600 finished marginally lower.

The German DAX ended flat with a negative bias and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gave up 0.7 percent while France's CAC 40 rose by 0.4 percent.