Macroeconomic data, foreign fund flows among others key to stock markets this week: Experts

Stock markets this week will largely be dictated by macroeconomic data, foreign fund flows and global cues, say experts.

"Inflation and advance tax collection data will set the trend for the market this week. Data on inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) and the wholesale price index (WPI) for February will be announced on Monday," said Vijay Singhania, Founder-Director, Trade Smart Online.

Meanwhile, industrial output for the third month in a row remained in the negative territory, contracting 1.5% in January.

"Market in the near term will depend on CPI and WPI data to be announced on Monday and also take cues from the trend in global markets, investment by foreign portfolio investors (FIIs) and movement of crude oil prices," said Rohit Gadia, Founder and CEO, CapitalVia Global Research.

The two-day policy meeting of the US Federal Reserve on March 15-16 may also influence trading.

"The mood of the markets has clearly changed from utter despair to expectancy. The shift in sentiment is visible across the industries... The extreme bullish sentiment currently in the short term will lead to some amount of correction. However, the undercurrent is strong in the market. The market can consolidate for some time before the next move to begin," said Jimeet Modi, CEO, SAMCO Securities.

Markets ended in the green for the second consecutive week as the Sensex and the Nifty firmed up by another 72 points and 25 points, respectively, on sustained foreign capital inflows coupled with higher overseas leads.