Indian Indices:

The key domestic benchmarks are likely to open higher today tracking a firm trend in markets across Asia and a bullish closing at Wall Street on Friday. SGX Nifty is trading 37.00 points higher.

Sensex and Nifty rose for a 2nd-consecutive day on Friday, led by gains in IT stocks after global rival Accenture Plc raised its revenue forecast, while RIL rose on bets it will roll out its telecom services in the next few months. The S&P BSE Sensex and CNX Nifty ended 0.90%-0.81% higher each

On (Friday 19, 2014), the 30-share Sensex gained 245 points or 0.9% at 27,372 and the Nifty gained 66 points or 0.8% to close at 8,225.

Global Market:

Asian shares and the dollar began a holiday-shortened week on a strong footing on Monday, with the euro testing two-year lows against the greenback on divergent monetary policy expectations.

The US stock market ended a turbulent week punctuated with collapse of the ruble, gyrations in the oil prices and the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, with the biggest weekly gain since October.

Continental European stocks edged lower on Friday as a late advance was hindered by Swiss drugmaker Roche after two of its major drugs failed tests, with Italian banks under pressure from a downgrade by S&P.

Major Headlines of the day:

Infosys to increase focus on North America, EMEA with Finacle

DuPont joins hands with Reliance, Vipul for ‘green’ sarees

Retail grows to $ 560-bn in 2014, FDI hopes hang in balance.