Pre-market: Nifty seen opening higher; may hit 7900 levels

NEW DELHI: The 50-share Nifty index is expected to open higher on Tuesday following positive trend seen in other Asian markets. Tracking the momentum, the index is expected to surpass its previous record high of 7880.50 hit on 18 August 2014 and touch 7900 in trade today.

At 07:30 a.m., Nifty India stock futures in Singapore were trading 32 points higher at 7,904 indicating positive opening on the domestic market.

The benchmark index has closed at a life time high of 7874.25 on the first trading day of the week and the buying seen in the last three trading sessions has been on good volumes.

"The index had corrected up to 7540 in the previous week but it took very good trend line support from that level and has now entered into un-chartered territory," said Vinit Pagaria, Senior VP - Investment Strategies at Microsec Capital Ltd.

"The resistance is likely to emerge in the 7950-8050 band and it would be really difficult for the bulls to take the index beyond this zone in the short term. On the downside, 7750 and 7680 are likely to act as strong supports," he added.

Overall, the index is likely to remain range bound in the 7680-8050 zone in the next few weeks. However, traders should maintain a stop loss at 7650 for leveraged long positions, advises Pagaria.

Overnight, US stocks ended higher with the Nasdaq closing at a 14-year high as increasing homebuilder confidence and hopes for receding tensions in Russia gave investors reasons to make bigger bets on the equity market.

"Russian officials said on Monday that while all issues related to the country's humanitarian convoy to Ukraine had been resolved, progress had not been made on reaching a cease-fire," Reuters reported.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 175.83 points, or 1.06 per cent, to close at 16,838.74. The S&P 500 rose 16.68 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 1,971.74. The Nasdaq Composite added 43.39 points, or 0.97 per cent, to close at 4,508.31

Asian shares were trading mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 index which was trading 0.91 per cent higher at 15,461.50 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was trading 0.14 per cent higher at 24,984.

South Korea's Kospi index was trading 0.72 per cent higher at 2,068, China's Shanghai index was trading 0.10 per cent lower at 2,237.