Stocks to open higher

Headlines for the day:

Solar power scheme draws Rs2.29-lakh crore proposals

Mahindra bets big on US

Patni bags US air transport body deal

Events for the day:

Major corporate action

Monthly and weekly inflation to be announced today
Ex-date for dividend of Pfizer, KSB Pumps, Ineos Abs
Results: Castrol India, CMC
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European stocks hit an 18-month closing high on Wednesday, as forecast-beating results from JPMorgan and Intel and solid US retail sales brightened the prospect for economic recovery.

The US stocks notched a fifth straight day of gains on Wednesday as stronger-than-expected corporate results and March retail sales pushed the S&P 500 past 1,200 for the first time in 18 months.

In today's trade, the Asian markets were trading on a positive note, except Shanghai Compostie. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 49.5 points higher.

Indian markets

After having a holiday yesterday (April 14, 2010) due to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Jayanti, the market is likely to open strong following the strong and positive global cues that are coming from the global markets. However, we could see profit bookings at the higher levels as the case we have seen in the last one-month, which may result in volatility. The rupee is still appreciating, which may have a negative impact on the IT stocks. An interesting fact is that, since the post budget the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been the net buyers in the Indian stocks, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have been the net sellers, which shows the confidence of the FIIs in the Indian markets. The RBI will be closely watching the announcement of monthly and weekly inflation data, which may decide the RBI's action on the interest rate hike on the upcoming monetary policy to be held on April 20, 2010.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the crude oil prices reported gains after the five consecutive session of losses, with the Nymex light crude oil for the May series rose by $1.79 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the May series rose by $6.20 and the Comex Silver for the May series was up by $0.16 to a troy ounce respectively.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On April 13, 2010, the FIIs were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs244.50 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on April 09, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks to the tune of Rs257.90 crore.