Indian indices may open firm; F&O expiry eyed

Headlines for the day:

SEBI drops legal option on ULIPS

Govt mulls 100% FDI in defence

Events for the day:

Major corporate action

F&O Expiry for the month of April
Weekly inflation to be announced today
SJVN IPO opens today
Results: Andhra Bank, Ultratech Cement, Cadila Healthcare
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares fell on Wednesday, with banks weak as worries over the fiscal health of euro zone peripheral countries intensified after Standard & Poor's downgraded its debt rating on Spain by one notch.

The US stocks rose on Wednesday, led by financial companies including J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America and energy giant Exxon Mobil, as the Federal Reserve maintained its easy-money stance, saying it would keep interest rates near zero for an extended period.

In today's trade, the Asian markets were trading on a positive note, except Kospi index. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 6 points higher. The Janpanese market (Nikkei 225 index) is closed today on account of Showa day.

Indian markets

Global equities, yesterday, slid on fears that S&P downgrading Greece’ and Portugal’s debt ratings will catch contagion, and India was no exception.

On Federal Reserve's move on keeping the interest rates near zero for an extended period, most of the Asian indices were trading in green, while European markets closed in negative territory on the back of worries over euro zone's debt problems. However, following the positive Asian cues, the Indian market is likely to open gap-up. Going in to the session, the market is expected to remain volatile owing to the F&O expiry for April series and weekly inflation readings, which are to be announced later today.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the crude oil prices turned higher Wednesday after the Fed announced it would keep rates low, with the Nymex light crude oil for the May series rose by $0.78 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the May series rose by $9.60 and the Comex Silver for the May series was down by $0.01 to a troy ounce respectively.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On April 28, 2010, the FIIs were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs160 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on April 26, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks to the tune of Rs28.80 crore.