Flat start on cards

Headlines for the day:

EIH rights offer may help RIL raise stake

Indian Oil Corporation increases petrol price by 27 paise a litre

Tatas for mining profit share as part of costs



Events for the day:

Major corporate action

Electrosteel Steels, Ramky Infrastructure IPO opens today
Microsec Financial Services, Eros International Media IPO closes today
Apis India board to consider bonus issue
For more events and news, log on to Sharekhan.com

Updates on global events

The US NAHB Housing Market Index remained unchanged at 13 in September

Pre-market report.

Indian indices

The world markets have shown a smart rise amid bright prospects for the economic growth. The uninterrupted inflows from the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have taken the domestic markets to new highs. The domestic markets are heading higher, while there is caution in the air.

Going into today’s session, the domestic markets are set to begin flat, tracking the marginally higher Asian markets.

Petrol prices have become costlier by 27 paise at over 18,600 retail outlets of Indian Oil Corporation, making it the first state-run oil company to exercise the pricing freedom announced by the government on June 26, 2010. Other public sector fuel retailers— Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum— will follow the market leader by raising petrol price between 28 and 26 paise, respectively. The oil & gas stocks will hog the limelight in today’s trade.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

The FIIs continued to pour money into the Indian markets. The FIIs bought shares worth a net of Rs1,715.80 crore on September 20, 2010, as against net buy of Rs1,143.60 crore on September 17, 2010. The domestic investors have sold the Indian stocks worth a net of Rs345 crore on September 17, 2010.

Global signals

Optimism that the economy will not slip back into recession lifted the European shares on Monday (September 20, 2010), with oil heavyweights gaining following a jump in the crude prices.

The S&P 500 closed at a four-month high on Monday, as a long-awaited break above a technical range and a flurry of positive corporate news increased investor optimism.

The Asian markets were trading marginally higher today, following the overnight gains on the Wall Street. SGX Nifty was trading 2 points up, indicating to have a flat start on the Indian bourses.

Commodity cues

Oil rose by almost 2% on Monday toward $75 a barrel, snapping a four-day slump, tracking broad gains in equity markets that were buoyed by optimism about the strength of the economic recovery.