India’s Sensex is expected to remain range bound Monday as investors will be watchful following uncertainty over the progress made by the U.S. Congress leaders in reaching an agreement to avert the looming fiscal cliff.
Investor confidence will be weighed down as there's very little hope of the U.S. being able to avoid the fiscal cliff, consisting of tax rises and spending cuts at the beginning of next year. Market players are discouraged that President Barack Obama and the congressional leaders have been unable to reach an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff as the budget talks failed. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said that a proposal to avoid spending cuts and tax increases could not gain enough support in the Congress.
Stock markets in Japan are closed Monday for holiday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.15 percent, or 31.51 points, to 22542.91. Among major gainers were HSBC Holdings plc (0.85 percent) and Swire Pacific Ltd (0.65 percent).
South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index rose 0.13 percent, or 2.49 points, to 1982.91. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd gained 1.32 percent and shares of LG Electronics Inc were down 0.95 percent.
On Friday, the U.S. stocks fell as investor confidence turned negative amid reports that the Congress leaders are not reaching an agreement to finalize on a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. Meanwhile, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, personal income rose 0.6 percent in November up from 0.1 percent in October and personal spending rose 0.4 percent in November up from 0.1 percent fall in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.91 percent, the S&P 500 Index was down 0.94 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.96 percent.
European markets also fell Friday as investors continued to be watchful amid revival of concerns of debt crisis affecting the euro zone. London's FTSE 100 was down 18.35 points, Germany's DAX 30 index fell 35.87 points and France's CAC 40 dropped 5.33 points.
On Friday, the Sensex fell 1.09 percent to 19242 at the close. The overall market breadth was negative with 979 advances against 1939 declines. The BSE's Midcap Index declined 1.47 percent to 6997.72 and Smallcap Index dropped 1.47 percent to 7325.51.
