Indian equities traded in a narrow range on Monday with the Nifty 50 ending just shy of the 18,700 mark with minor gains. Broader markets outperformed. Dealing room sources told CNBC-TV18 that fund flows were mostly stock-specific and confined to largecap names. According to traders, the 20-Day Exponential Moving Average of 18,650 is the key for the Nifty 50, a level it has not breached since April. Rollovers will be important today as Indian markets are shut on Wednesday on account of a holiday and the series expiry is on Thursday.

US equities had a down day on Monday with the S&P 500 ended 0.5 percent lower. The losses were mainly led by the Nasdaq, which fell 1.2 percent, courtesy a 6 percent drop in Tesla post a Goldman Sachs downgrade. Other tech stocks like Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta, all fell over 3 percent. Despite the drop, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are poised to finish the month with gains of over 3 percent, while the Dow Jones is poised for a 2.5 percent monthly advance. In other global news, the ECB forum kicked off on Monday where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak on a panel with ECB President Christine Lagarde at 09:00 AM New York time on Thursday.

Fund flows were mixed on Monday with foreign investors being net sellers in the cash market, while domestic institutions were net buyers.

Block deals and fund raising activity continues in the Indian market. Fund raising first, as Aditya Birla Capital launched a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issue to raise funds. Sources tell CNBC-TV18 that the company plans to raise up to Rs 1,750 crore through the issue. This is part of the Rs 3,000 crore fund raising approval that the board has approved. The stock was also part of Nimesh Shah's D-Street Chatter on CNBC-TV18 on Monday. Continuing with block deals, Bloomberg reports that a majority shareholder in Sapphire Foods plans on selling 30 lakh shares at a price of Rs 1,345 - Rs 1,391 per share for as much as $51 million.

Primary market activity is also gathering steam as the IPO of India's largest drone manufacturer IdeaForge was fully subscribed on the first day itself. Overall subscription figures stood at 3.69 times. The retail investor portion has been subscribed 12.48 times already. Another IPO opens for subscription today as Cyient's demerged DLM business hits the primary market. The Rs 592 crore issue will be a fresh issue of shares with no Offer for Sale. Cyient DLM is an electronic manufacturing services and solutions (EMS) company which caters to defence aerospace medical technology.