Markets heads to Flat opening

Headlines for the day

Patel Engg bags $1 bn Mauritius project

Tata Motors to sell 20% in Telcon to Hitachi

GMR Energy to raise Rs1,600 crore

Events for the day

Major corporate action

Goenka Diamond & Jewels IPO closes today
Intrasoft Technologies IPO closes today
Ex-date for Bonus Issue of Poly Medicure in the ratio of 1:1
For more Events, log on to Sharekhan.com
Results: Pfizer

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European equities ended at their highest level in nearly 18 months on Thursday, boosted by banking shares, as hopes for a solution for Greece's fiscal problems and soothing U.S. economic figures improved sentiment.

The U.S. stocks ended flat on Thursday, dropping off earlier highs as a weak U.S. bond auction and global debt concerns continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

In today's trade, all the Asian indices are trading in red zone, except Nikkei that rose 0.7% and hit a two-month high. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 11 point lower.

Indian markets

The Indian indices are likely to open flat to negative note on back of mixed global cues. As the Nifty has touched a crucial level of 5250, it is expected to sustain the level. The Indian equities are likely to remain in range-bound as now that the expiry of the derivatives contracts for the March series is out of the way.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the Crude oil prices reported loss for the second day in a row, with the Nymex light crude oil for the April series declined by $0.08 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the April series rose by $4.10 and the Comex Silver for the May series was up by $0.10 to a troy ounce respectively.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were the net buyers for the whole week. On March 25, 2010, FIIs were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs485.50 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on March 22, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks to the tune of Rs359.50 crore.