SGX Nifty:

Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 78 points at the opening bell.

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are mostly trading lower on Monday after UBS agreed to buy its banking rival Credit Suisse in a $3.2 billion takeover over the weekend.

The People's Bank of China left the loan prime rates for 1-year and 5-year unchanged, after cutting the reserve requirement ratio for almost all banks by 0.25 percentage points last week. The 1-year LPR stayed at 3.65% while the 5-year LPR remained at 4.3%, both unchanged since August last year.

UBS Group AG, Switzerland's largest banking group, has agreed to acquire the crisis-hit Credit Suisse Group AG in a $3.23-billion deal. Swiss regulators played a key role in facilitating the deal in an effort to quell a contagion threatening the banking sector. Under the deal, Credit Suisse shareholders will receive one UBS share for every 22.48 Credit Suisse shares. The combined bank will have $5 trillion of invested assets, according to UBS.

Wall Street closed lower on Friday as investors pulled back from positions in bank shares amid lingering concerns over the state of the U.S. banking sector.

Domestic markets:

Back home, the key equity barometers settled with strong gains on Friday. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 355.06 points or 0.62% to 57,989.90. The Nifty 50 index added 114.45 points or 0.67% to 17,100.05.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,766.53 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,817.14 crore in the Indian equity market on 17 March, provisional data showed.