Gap-up start likely; RBI's move eyed

Headlines for the day:

NMDC eyes two mines in Russia for Rs1,881 crore

Dabur picks up Turkey firm for Rs323.78 crore

RBI says inflation remains a target lest it hurt growth



Events for the day:

Major corporate action

RBI's quarterly monetary policy to be announced today
Engineers India FPO opens today
Results: Reliance Industries, L&T, MRPL
For more events and news, log on to Sharekhan.com

Updates on global events

The US New Home Sales for the month ended June 2010 stood at 23.6% as compared to (36.7%) seen in the previous month.

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares hit a five-week closing high on Monday (July 26, 2010), helped by strong US new home sales and banks basking in the glow of their stress test results published late last week.

An upbeat outlook from FedEx, coupled with encouraging home sales, lifted US stocks on Monday, keeping the S&P 500 above 1,100 for a second day.

The Asian markets were trading mostly higher, except Shanghai Composite as Wall Street gained. SGX Nifty was trading 21 points higher, indicating towards a positive start on the Indian indices.

Indian Indices

The world markets edged up as investors reacted positively to a rebound in the US new home sales data for June, which were above expectations lifting Dow and Nasdaq. This news reduced some concerns about the global economic recovery.

Following the path led by the global frontiers, the Indian markets are expected to open in the green. However, the investors are expected to remain cautious, as the market may remain volatile.

However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s monetary policy review and Reliance Industries (RIL)’ results will set the tone for the Dalal Street and will decide the direction in the immediate short-term. The market players will be closely watching the RBI’s policy announcement and the first quarter numbers of the Sensex heavyweight RIL, both of which are slated for today.

Reliance Industries, MRPL, Hindustan Uniliver, Cairn India, Titan Industries, JSW Steel, Godrej Industries, Reliance Industries, Cadila Healthcare, Ashok Leyland, GTL, IRB Infrastructure, Glenmark Pharma, Asian Paints, Everest Kanto Cylinders will declare their results today; the stocks will be closely eyed.

Commodity cues

The oil traded at around $79 a barrel, flat on Monday after rising on the US housing data, however, the crude oil futures for September delivery closed unchanged at $78.98 a barrel.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs845.20 crore on Monday, substantially higher than Rs188.40 crore on Friday, July 23, 2010. This indicates the FIIs, have been showing their strong interest in the Indian markets and continued to hedge cash market positions.