Gap-up opening seen; Oil & gas stocks eyed

Headlines for the day:

Edelweiss, Lanco lead race for Axis' PE arm

Essar Energy makes it to FTSE 100 Index

HC clears Dabur, Fem Care merger




Events for the day:

Major corporate action

Vision Corp board to consider stock split
Weekly inflation to be announced today
Ex-date for bonus issue of Infotech Enterprises
For more events, log on to Sharekhan.com

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares rose on Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak, after better-than-expected Chinese export data boosted hopes for global economic recovery.

The US stocks fell on Wednesday in another late-day roller-coaster ride, dragged lower by British Petroleum and other energy shares as the US probe of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico deepened.

In today's trade, the major Asian indices were trading slightly higher, except Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng. SGX Nifty was trading merely 9.50 points higher.

Indian Indices

In the previous session, the domestic market finished the session with modest gains, which led the Nifty to settle at 5000 levels.

The Asian markets were trading marginally higher in their early trade, with Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices being an exception, with resource stocks leading the way. But their gains were limited by ongoing worries over Europe's debt crisis and fears that the Gulf oil spill in the United States could send British Petroleum into bankruptcy court.

Owing to the current scenario, the Indian bourses are expected to begin slightly higher. A lot of caution is expected and a little skepticism when the market bounces.

The concerns about European austerity measures and their impact on the region's growth prospects and signs of sluggish growth in US regional economies were weighing on the global indices.

With the governments review of the oil prices today, the oil and gas stocks will be in the focus. The weekly inflation numbers are also to be announced today, which may bring some momentum in the trade.

Commodity cues

In the commodity space, the crude oil prices rose for a second day on Wednesday after a report from the Energy Department showed crude inventories fell more than expected last week, with the Nymex light crude oil for the July series rose by $2.39 per barrel, whereas in the metals space, the Comex Gold for the July series declined by $15.50 to a troy ounce and the Comex Silver for the July series was down by $0.29 to a troy ounce.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

On June 09, 2010, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were the net buyers of the Indian stocks to the tune of Rs436.60 crore, whereas the domestic mutual, on June 08, 2010, were the net buyers of the stocks to the tune of Rs22.00 crore.