The Indian market is likely to witness a flat-to-positive opening on the back of mixed global cues. Wall Street ended sharply lower on Friday as the Group of Twenty (G-20) meeting failed to come up with any constructive understanding at the end of two-day meeting over the weekend. Markets in Asia were mixed despite higher-than-expected gross domestic product (CDP) numbers for the September quarter. The SGX Nifty, which opened strong, pared early gains and was just 1.50 points higher at 6,085.50 compared to 6,084 on Friday.

The aftermath of the festive season proved costly for investors as global cues, weak domestic industrial growth numbers for September and mixed earnings reports trashed the indices last week. Pullout by foreign institutional investors also weighed on the markets. The Sensex and the Nifty both closed with cuts of around 4% on a weekly basis.

Markets in Asia were mixed in early, despite better-than-expected GDP numbers for the September quarter. GDP rose an annualized 3.9% in the three months ended 30^th September, following a revised 1.8% expansion in the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. In nominal terms, the economy grew 2.9%.

The Jakarta Composite was up 0.04%, the KLSE Composite gained 0.19%, the Nikkei 225 surged 0.71%, and the Seoul Composite was up 0.32%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite declined 0.85%, the Hang Seng fell 0.01%, the Straits Times was down 0.46% and the Taiwan Weighted fell 0.88% in early trade. The SGX Nifty, which opened strong, pared early gains and was just 1.50 points higher at 6,085.50 compared to 6,084 on Friday.

The US markets declined on Friday again to end the worst week in the last three months. With the Group of Twenty (G-20) summit of not much use to the US as it failed to persuade world leaders to come up with plans to strengthen global growth, the markets ended lower. The markets also took a hit from the Chinese market as the government there said that the pace of inflation hit a more than two-year high in October, raising speculation that China would hike rates to ease inflation. The Dow tumbled 90.52 points (0.80%) to 11,192. The S&P 500 declined by 14.43 points (1.18 %,) to 1,199. The Nasdaq fell by 37.31 points (1.46%) to 2,518.

In a late night development on Sunday, controversial telecom minister A Raja submitted his resignation after being ordered to do so by his party, DMK, in the wake of allegations that he caused a loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer while allocating second generation (2G) spectrum two years ago.

The resignation was submitted after he returned to Delhi from Chennai where he met the party chief and state Chief Minister M Karunanidhi twice in the last 24 hours.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh is expected to handle the telecom portfolio in the interim period till a new minister is appointed, sources indicate.