Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 1 point at the opening bell.

Markit Economics, an independent, global provider of some of the world's most influential business surveys will unveil the result of a monthly survey on the performance of India's services sector for November 2016 today, 5 December 2016.

The developments in the ongoing winter session of the Parliament will also be keenly watched. The winter session ends on 16 December 2016. The government will try to get key legislations related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill passed that will help the bill getting implemented from its earlier deadline of 1 April 2017. There was a virtual washout of proceedings barring the passage of the Bill to amend the I-T Act without discussion so far in winter session as opposition continued protests against the government over demonetization issue.

Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading lower. US stocks struggled for direction on Friday, 2 December 2016, with the Dow industrials finishing lower and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closing slightly higher as investors digested a weaker-than-expected payroll report, favoring sectors viewed as safe in economically uncertain times.

The uncertainty was underlined by the November jobs report, which showed 178,000 jobs added in the month, fewer than had been expected, while the count over the prior two months was reduced. However, the jobless rate fell sharply to a nine-year low of 4.6%.

Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 190.52 crore on Friday, 2 December 2016, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 418.58 crore on Friday, 2 December 2016, as per provisional data.

NMDC announced that Government of India, Ministry of Steel has communicated the 'in-principle' decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) of Government of India to consider strategic disinvestment of the Nagarnar Steel Plant of the company. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 2 December 2016. Separately, company announced on Saturday, 3 December 2016, that the prices of lump iron ore with effect from 29 November 2016 was kept unchanged at Rs 2,100 wet metric tonne (WMT) compared to prices last revised in early November. The company rose fine ore prices by 5.68% to Rs 1,860 per WMT from 29 November 2016, compared to prices last revised in early November.

Key benchmark indices suffered severe setback on last trading day of the week on Friday, 2 December 2016, weighed by losses in index heavyweights ITC and HDFC. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, lost 329.26 points or 1.24% to settle at 26,230.66. The Nifty 50 index lost 106.10 points or 1.3% to settle at 8,086.80. Both the Sensex and the Nifty settled at their lowest closing level in over one week. Weakness in global stocks weighed adversely on the domestic bourses.