Pre-market: All eyes on RIL, Axis Bank

Corporate results, inflation data to be keenly watched this week

Markets are likely to react to more corporate results this week. Reliance Industries and Axis Bank are among the major companies coming out with their quarterly numbers today.

US stocks ended flat on Friday as investors turned cautious ahead of the earnings season.

In Asia, Tokyo stocks opened slightly lower Monday, dragged down by profit-taking targeting cyclical issues amid concerns about corporate earnings. Nikkei is down 11 points, followed by Straits Times and Kospi. At 700 hrs IST the SGX Nifty was trading down 15 points at 5,679.

Market experts said the focus has turned to wholesale inflation data which is scheduled for later today as it may decide Reserve Bank's next move when it meets for the second quarter monetary policy review on October 30. On Friday, consumer inflation for September showed signs of easing.

In key results today, watch out for Reliance Industries and Axis Bank would also be in focus as the companies come out with their second quarter results for FY13 today.