Flat-to-negative start likely on Asian cues

Headlines for the day:

RBI announces measures to boost liquidity

M&M forays into alternative fuel tech with Reva buy

Realty IPOs face fresh market heat

Events for the day:

Major corporate action

F&O Expiry for the month of May
Weekly inflation to be announced today
Results: Colgate, Cairn India, Tata Motors
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares almost recovered the previous session's losses on Wednesday in a broad market rebound with miners notching up strong gains.

Wall Street staged yet another late-day reversal on Wednesday to end lower as news suggesting China was reassessing its euro-zone debt holdings pushed investors into profit-taking mode.

In today's trade, the Asian markets were trading in red. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 16.5 points lower.

Indian Indices

The Asian indices were lower in their early trade after the Dow Jones industrial average closed below the 10,000 line for the first time in nearly four months on concerns that Europe's debt crisis could stifle the global economic recovery. A fall in the euro against the dollar was main trigger and also was sparked by a media report saying that China is reviewing its holdings of European government bonds due to the debt crisis also sparked selling of the euro.

The Indian equities are likely to start on a flat-to-negative note on back of the weak Asian and US cues. The market sentiment is expected to sluggish following the Asian market path and a fall in Wall street on the fears that Europe's fiscal crisis could cause a slowdown in the global economy. Also going in to the session, the market is expected to remain volatile owing to the F&O expiry for May series and weekly inflation readings, which are to be announced later today.

The earnings of Colgate-Palmolive (India), Cairn India, Gujarat State Petronet, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Tata Motors and Bharat Petroleum Corporation are later to be announced today — the stocks will be closely eyed.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the crude oil prices rose about 4% Wednesday, as world financial markets rebounded from losses, with the Nymex light crude oil for the June series jumped by $2.76 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the June series rose by $15.50 and the Comex Silver for the June series was up by $0.53 to a troy ounce respectively.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On May 26, 2010, the FIIs were the net sellers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs1421.50 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on May 25, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks to the tune of Rs432.80 crore.