Stocks to open higher on strong global cues

Headlines for the day:

Sesa Goa plans Rs9,000 crore steel foray

Government may cut size of SBI's rights issue

Foreign trade policy review responds to exporters' demand



Events for the day:

Major corporate action

Ranklin Solutions board to consider stock split today
Ex-date for stock split of Indian Hume Pipe Co
Ex-date for dividend of Hero Honda Motors, National Fertilizers
For more events and news, log on to Sharekhan.com

Updates on global events

The US gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter rose by 1.6%.

The UK GDP for the second quarter rose by 1.2%.

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European stocks rose on Friday (August 27, 2010), led by telecoms and other defensive sectors, but it was not enough to stop an overall loss for the week as investors reacted to data that cast further doubt on the strength of the economic recovery.

The US stocks rebounded to post their best gains in nearly four weeks on Friday, overcoming initial skittishness brought on by a revenue warning from Intel and dour comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The Asian markets were trading higher, following the Friday’s Wall Street gains and Japanese Nikkei rose more than 3% in early trades. SGX Nifty was trading 56 points higher, suggesting to have a strong start on the Dalal Street.

Indian Indices

After ending the previous week on a negative note, the Indian indices are set to open firm in today’s trade, tracking the strong path led by the global indices, as US markets closed with 1.65% gain and Asian markets trading higher. The investor sentiment seemed to be positive and markets may trade on a healthy note for the rest of the day.

Investors in India will be closely watching the economy’s GDP reading for the April-June quarter on Tuesday (August 31, 2010) that may have a bearing on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s monetary policy decision in September.

Commodity cues

The crude oil prices ended higher on Friday as equities on Wall Street rallied on reassurances from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, as the crude oil futures for October delivery rose by $1.81, to settle at $75.17 a barrel.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were in a buying mode as they bought Indian equities worth a net of Rs156.60 crore on August 27, 2010, as compared to the net sellers of Rs290.40 crore on August 26, 2010. This shows that the foreign funds into Indian equities remain strong.