Stocks may open lower on weak global cues

Headlines for the day:

Cipla tops NPPA's overpricing list, Ranbaxy second

Ashok Leyland to invest Rs2000 crore

Indiabulls stakes claim to Navi Mumbai plot

Events for the day:

Major corporate action

India's export and import data for the month of March 2010
SJVN IPO closes today
HDFC board to consider stock split
Results: HDFC, IDEA Cellular, JSW Steel
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares fell on Friday, with banking shares declined after the results from Barclays failed to impress investors and as Goldman Sachs tumbled 8% following a broker downgrade.

The US stocks tumbled on Friday to close out the worst week since January as news of a criminal probe into Goldman Sachs unnerved investors already anxious about the prospects for heavy regulation from Washington.

In today's trade, the Asian markets were trading in the negative territory. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 23.5 points lower.

Indian markets

The news of a possible criminal search into the alleged malpractices of Goldman Sachs during the housing bubble triggered a wave of analyst downgrades, the concern over Greece bailout worry and the negative cues around the globe will lead the Indian market to open lower at the start.

However, market is expected to await the key data like India's export and import data for March that will be released today, and also the auto sales numbers and the cements dispatches will start flowing from today. Auto and cement stocks will be in focus as they will release their monthly as well as annual sales figures. However, the investors to be cautious as the market is expected to remain volatile ahead through the session.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the crude oil prices jumped Friday for the third straight day as optimism about the economic recovery and a weaker dollar boosted the appeal of crude, with the Nymex light crude oil for the June series rose by $0.98 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the June series rose by $11.70 and the Comex Silver for the June series was up by $0.06 to a troy ounce respectively.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On April 30, 2010, the FIIs were the net sellers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs790 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on April 29, 2010, were the net buyers of the stocks to the tune of Rs358.70 crore.