Indian Shares To Rise On Global Cues

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening higher on the back of positive global cues. That said, gains are likely to be capped ahead of the Christmas holiday on Wednesday. The Indian markets followed global stocks higher on Monday, although gains remained marginal amid selling pressure in IT stocks and due to caution ahead of the expiry of monthly derivative contracts scheduled this Thursday. The BSE Sensex and the Nifty indexes closed up 0.1 percent and 0.16 percent respectively.

Asian stocks are trading mostly higher this morning on growing optimism over the U.S. economy. Japan's Nikkei index is climbing 0.8 percent as trading resumed after a holiday on Monday. The benchmark indexes in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea are up between 0.2 percent and 0.9 percent, while Indonesia's Jakarta Composite index is declining marginally.

U.S. stocks rose overnight after Apple reached a deal with China Mobile and a report from the Commerce Department showed U.S. consumer spending outpaced income growth in November. A key measure of core inflation remained tame below the Fed's 2 percent target. The Dow and the S&P 500 rose about half a percent each to fresh record highs, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.1 percent to reach its best level since 2000.

The European markets also finished notably higher on Monday as signs that the U.S. economy is gaining traction and the IMF's prediction that the U.S. economy will grow at a faster pace than previously expected next year helped investors shrug off recent concerns over a credit crunch in China. The German DAX rose 0.9 percent, France's CAC 40 gained half a percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index added 1.1 percent.