Equities may open flat-to-negative

Headlines for the day:

Insurance firms set to defy SEBI

Pharma firms see scope in US patent expiry

Tata Projects among 13 to certify city gas networks

Events for the day:

Major corporate action

Mandhana Industries IPO opens today
Nitesh Estates IPO closes today
Results: Shree Renuka Sugars, Glaxosmithkl Pharma, PTC India
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares ended at their highest level in nearly a week on Monday as strong US economic numbers on Friday and encouraging earnings boosted sentiment, although Greece's debt situation prompted investors to stay cautious.

The US stocks edged lower on Monday as bank shares fell on fears that financial reform making its way through Congress will curb profits, while Caterpillar's strong results buoyed the Dow

In today's trade, the Asian markets were trading on a negative note. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 13 points lower.

Indian markets

The Indian equities are likely to open on a flat to negative note owing to the weak Asia cues. However, as seen in the last trading sessions, the markets have remained volatile and traded in a tight band owing to the F&O expiry for the April series due later this week. The trader who takes a shorter view should remain cautious.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the crude oil prices fell more than 1% Monday as initial optimism about Greece's bailout waned, sending the dollar higher against the euro, with the Nymex light crude oil for the May series down by $0.92 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the May series rose by $0.40 and the Comex Silver for the May series was increased by $0.14 to a troy ounce respectively.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On April 26, 2010, the FIIs were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs879.90 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on April 22, 2010, were the net buyers of the stocks to the tune of Rs247.60 crore.