Pre-market: Nifty may extend rally in the morning session

Markets are set to extend eight days of gains in the opening trades following strong rollovers in the March derivatives expiry, shrugging of subdued global cues. The Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange were up 35 points at 5,870.

Across Asia, markets were trading mostly higher on Friday morning shrugging of subdued overnight cues from Wall Street. Although US Indices edged marginally lower on Thursday, the markets posted their best quarterly gains in 12 years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 6.4% in the March quarter.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 11 points after hitting two week high as profit-booking kicked in. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 9 points led by losses in financial shares. South Korea's Kospi Composite was trading flat, up 1 point and Shanghai Composite was up 2 points.