Strong start likely on Spain deficit measures

Headlines for the day:

SEBI challenges SAT order on Takeover Code

GVK Power mulls separate holding companies

R-Infra slams Tata Power for defying state govt decision

Events for the day:

Major corporate action

Weekly inflation to be announced today
Ex-date for dividend of Allahabad Bank, Bosch
Results: Educomp Solutions, MTNL, Koutons Retail India
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares gained on Wednesday, as encouraging results from financials, such as Allianz and ING Groep, and Spain's plan to cuts its deficit lifted investor sentiment.

The US stocks capped their best three-day run in 10 months on Wednesday boosted by technology and industrial shares, after Spain unveiled an austerity plan that reassured investors Europe was addressing its fiscal ills.

In today's trade, the Asian markets were trading on a positive note following the strong gains on Wall Street. At the time of writing this report, SGX Nifty was trading 31 points higher.

Indian markets

The fiscal problems in Europe remained unsolved, however, debt contagion fears in the country have eased a lot following the series of various measures to fight a contagion. Spain's austerity measures following the European Union's bailout fund proved that European governments have the will to fix the troubles.

These boosted the sentiments around the globe where European and US markets closed higher. The Asian markets were quoting higher in the early trade, with sentiments buoyed by the Wall Street's gains. The Indian indices are set to have a gap-up opening, with the path led by the global peers.

Going in to the session, the market is expected to remain volatile owing to weekly inflation readings, which are to be announced later today. The earnings of Educomp Solutions, MTNL, Koutons Retail India and Crompton Greaves are later to be announced today — the stocks will be closely eyed by the investors.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the crude oil prices slipped on Wednesday, with the Nymex light crude oil for the June series down by $0.72 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the June series rose by $22.80 and the Comex Silver for the June series was increased by $0.37 to a troy ounce respectively.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On May 12, 2010, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs148.20 crore, whereas the domestic mutual funds, on May 11, 2010, were the net sellers of the stocks to the tune of Rs196.80 crore.