Sensex may open lower

Headlines for the day

BHEL inks JV for 1,600-Mw unit

HPCL may set up Rs 25,000-crore oil refinery

Tata Steel net up, forms JV with Nippon Steel

Tata Tea net falls 77%

Gitanjali to set up 35 new outlets

Events for the day

Major corporate action:

Ex-date for interim dividend of HCL technologies and Sundaram Claytone

Syncom Healthcare Ltd, Vascon Engineers Ltd and Thangamayil Jewellery Ltd IPO closes today

DB Realty IPO opens today

Quarterly RBI monetary policy review today

Results today: Max India, Glenmark Pharma, Reliance Power, Educomp Solutions, NTPC, BEML, Siemens, Rashtriya Chemicals, Tata Motors, Power Finance Corporation, Balrampur Chini, Divis Lab, GE Shipping, Oracle, IOC, P&G, Titan Industries, Sun Pharma, GTL, Bharat Electronics, PTC India, Reliance natural, Moserbaer, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Tata Chemicals, MMTC, Lupin and Bhushan Steel

Pre-market report

Global signals

European Markets closed lower on Thursday, as banking & commodities stocks fell the most. FTSE 100 closed 1.37% lower at 5146.

On Thursday, US markets closed lower as poor outlooks from Motorola and Qualcomm dented the sentiments. Nasdaq closed lower by 1.91% to closed at 2179.

Among the Asian indices, all the Asian indices are trading in negative territory in morning trade except Shanghai Composite. At the time of writing of this report, SGX Nifty is trading 89 points lower.

Indian markets

Following the weak global markets, the domestic indices are expected to open lower and may remain volatile as quarterly RBI monetary policy review to come out today.

Among the local indices, the Nifty could test the 4900-4950 range on the up side, while on the down side it could find support at 4850 and 4800. While the Sensex is likely to get support at 1620 and may face resistance at 16500.

Indian ADR's

All the Indian ADRs trading on the US bourses closed lower except Satyam Computers that surged by 0.82%. On other hand MTNL fell the most with loss of 5.42%

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, wherein the Crude oil prices recorded marginal gain, with the Nymex light crude oil for March series rise by $0.15 to settle at $73.79 a barrel.

In the metals space, Comex Gold for April series declines by $1.20 to settle at $1084.50 to a troy ounce.

In the metals space, Comex Silver for March series declines by $0.23 to settle at $16.21 to a troy ounce.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On January 28, 2010, FIIs were the net sellers of the Indian Stocks in the tune of Rs1919.80 crore (with the gross purchase of Rs2957.10 crore and gross sales of Rs4876.90 crore).

While the Domestic mutual funds, on January 25, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks in the tune of Rs157.50 crore (with gross purchase of Rs726.50 crore and gross sales of Rs883.90 crore).