A little better

The human tendency to regard little things as important has produced very many great things.- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. A little better morning is in store after the main Indian stock indices snapped a five-day losing streak on Wednesday. Global cues are pretty good and this could bring some gains at least early on in today’s session. Asian markets are mostly higher this morning. US equity benchmarks closed up as well, spurred by encouraging technology results and positive data on the housing sector. US housing starts jumped in June to the highest level in four years. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated the central bank’s resolve to breathe more life into the US economy if things get worse. Bernanke doesn’t expect a double-dip recession in the US. However, the Fed Beige Book survey says the US economy slowed in June and early July. Overall US growth remains 'modest to moderate’. The bad news for India is that Brent crude is hovering around US$105 a barrel. Pranab Mukherjee is all set to win the race to the Rashtrapati Bhavan today, as the UPA has the right numbers on its side. Markets are more interested in what the Government would do on the policy front after the Presidential polls. As far as domestic economic data is concerned, the consumer prices remained elevated and sticky in June. What's worse, food prices could spike in the wake of a weak monsoon. Fuel prices, particularly the regulated ones, might rise after the Presidential election. Maruti will be in focus after one employee died and several others got injured at its Manesar plant following a fresh labour turmoil late on Wednesday. Hero MotoCorp, Dr. Reddy’s and Kotak Mahindra Bank will announce their results today along with few others. The IT pack could be in the spotlight after IBM raised its annual earnings estimate. Germany’s parliament is scheduled to vote on the rescue package for troubled Spanish banks on Thursday. Main Results Today: Ajanta Pharma, Autoline Industries, BOC India, DB Corp., Dish TV, Dr. Reddy's, Hero MotoCorp, Hindustan Media, Infomedia 18, Kirloskar Oil Engines, Kotak Mahindra Bank, L&T Finance, NIIT Tech, Persistent Systems, Tata Sponge, Timken India and Zee News. Trend in FII flows: The FIIs were net buyers of Rs 2.76bn in the cash segment on Wednesday while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of Rs 1.65bn, as per the provisional figures released by the NSE. The FIIs were net sellers at Rs 5.28bn in the F&O segment on Wednesday, according to the provisional NSE data. The foreign funds were net buyers of Rs 5.70bn in the cash segment on Tuesday while the Mutual Funds were net sellers at Rs 916mn, according to the SEBI figures.