Indices seen opening on buoyant note, inflation eyed

Key benchmark indices are likely to open on an upbeat note, ending their two-day losing trend, on strong Asian equities. The SGX Nifty futures for July 2009 expiry jumped 47 points in Singapore. Companies announcing June 2009 quarterly results will be in spotlight. Inflation data in the 12 months to 11 July 2009 will be released by the government today, 23 July 2009.

ACC, Ambuja Cements, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, Siemens, Biocon, Union Bank among others will announce their June 2009 quarterly result today, 23 July 2009. The Q1 June 2009 results announced so far have encouraging, with lower costs helping bottomline growth. The combined net profit of 270 companies rose 43% Rs 13,279 crore on 11.3% growth in sales to Rs 1,01,409 crore in Q1 June 2009 over Q1 June 2008.

Asian markets were trading firm today, 23 July 2009. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Japan rose by between 0.10% and 2.18%.

US markets ended mixed on Wednesday, 22 July 2009 as both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 ended the session in the red. However, the tech heavy Nasdaq successfully logged its eleventh straight advance.

The Dow slipped 34.68 points, or 0.4%, to 8,881.26 and the S&P 500 slipped 0.51 points, or 0.1%, to 954.07. However the Nasdaq rose 10.18 points, or 0.5%, to 1,926.38.

Back home, as per the provisional figures on the NSE, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 66.84 crore on Wednesday, 22 July 2009 while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 224.58 crore.