Nervousness may continue

Headlines for the day

Bhartii-Limelight link up to deliver multimedia services - Business Standard

Bhushan Steel - Essel set to acquire plot for Rs1,530 crore - Business Standard

Syncom Healthcare IPO Price Band fixed at Rs 65-75 - Business Line

Drugs exporters concerned over rupee appreciation - Business Line

Wipro plans to trim Finland operations - Business Line

Events for the day

Major corporate action:

Dividend & Results : VIP Industries, Transport Corp, Merck, Edelweiss Cap, Garware Offsh

Results Today : Reliance Industries, Bharti, ITC, Grasim, Punj Lloyd, Tech Mahindra, Fortis Healthcare, HCC, Noida Toll, Mc Leod Russel, Dish TV, Godrej Properties, 3i infotech, Asian Paints, Bajaj Electricals, ceat, cesc, container corp, corporation corp, Dolphin offshore, Edelweiss, Electrosteel casting, essar oil. Geometric, Hind Zinc, HMT, Inox leisure, Ispat, Jay shree chem., JK paper, Kalyani forge, Landmark Forging, Mah ugine, Merck, Mirc Elec, Nelcast, Peninsula land, Piramal Glass, Pratibha Ind, ratnamani Metals, Transport Corp, United breweries, VIP Ind, Visa Steel, Zee news.

Pre-market report

Global signals

European shares fell sharply for a second day on Thursday with banks sliding, miners suffering from lower metals prices and reports they face higher taxes, and after U.S. data cast further doubt on the economic recovery. At the end, FTSE 100 closed 1.57% lower at 5336.

While the U.S. stocks suffered their worst one-day percentage drop since October on Thursday as U.S. President Barack Obama proposed tough restrictions on banks that would squeeze profits.

Ongoing trade, all the Asian indices showing the weak trend in the early trading hours. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Seoul Composite, Straits and Jakarata trading in red territory with 1-2% each. And at the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty that opened marginally higher, shed his gain and was trading lower by 82 points.

Indian markets

After witnessing a sharp slump of over 400 points in yesterday's trades, the market is likely to remain shaky as global markets fell further and the FIIs remaining net sellers of equities in the local market. Although the sentiment is likely to remain bearish on weak global indices.

Among the local indices, the Nifty could test the 5150-5220 range on the up side, while on the down side it could find support at 5050 and 5010. While the Sensex is likely to get support at 16900 and may face resistance at 17200.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the Crude oil prices lost, with the Nymex light crude oil for March series fell by $1.54 to settle at $76.20 a barrel.

In the metals space, Comex Gold for March series tumbles $9.60 to settle at $1,103 to a troy ounce.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On January 20, 2009, FIIs were the net sellers of the Indian Stocks in the tune of Rs32.30 crore (with the gross purchase of Rs2712 crore and gross sales of Rs2744 crore).

While the Domestic mutual funds, on January 20, 2009, were the net Seller of the stocks in the tune of Rs197 crore (with gross purchase of Rs723 crore and gross sales of Rs920 crore).