Pre-market: Soft opening on the cards

Markets are likely to open in the red this morning, following weak cues from the Asian markets.

Markets in Asia, especially in Japan, have succembed to the pressure after Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The Nikkei slumped 4.5% to 9,789 after remaining shut for most part of the day on Friday after the earthquake struck. Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite slipped 0.4% each in trades.

Meanwhile, the SGX Nifty was trading unchanged at 5,463. Crude prices have also fallen marginally, giving hopes to markets globally.

Back home on Friday, dropped 154 points to end at 18,063. Nifty was down 49 points at 5,445. The week saw the Sensex dropping 1.6% (as compared to the previous Friday) on crisis in the Middle East, earthquake in Japan and political tussle among two parties in India.

Markets would now be looking at the advance tax collection on Tuesday and RBI's mid-quarterly policy review on Thursday for direction.