Five stocks to watch in today's trade

Watch out for SpiceJet, Indian Hotels, Maruti Suzuki, L&T Finance Holdings and Just Dial

Markets are likely to see a negative start owing to the weak global trends with profit booking emerging at higher levels on Wall Street.

Investors will also be keeping an eye in the IIP data for January and CPI inflation data for February.

At 0830 hrs, the SGX Nifty was down 22 points at 6,531.

Global Markets

In Asia, stock markets swung lower on Wednesday as economic uncertainty in China and the United States combined with political tensions in Ukraine to keep investors cautious and commodities under a dark cloud.

Japan's Nikkei retreated 2%, continuing the see-saw pattern of the last couple of months, while Australian stocks shed 1%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1%.

That mirrored a lacklustre performance by Wall Street, where soft data left investors no wiser on whether the economy's troubles were merely weather-related or something more fundamental.

Overnight,  U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday, with selling picking up late in the session, as investors cashed in some of the recent market gains, but the S&P 500 finished less than 1% away from a record high set last week.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.41%, to 16,351, the S&P 500 lost 0.51%, to 1,868 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.63%, to 4,307.

Stocks to Watch

Indian Hotels: Will make a Rs 500-crore impairment provisioning on its investments, even as it continues to feel the heat of depressed market conditions.

Hatsun Agro Products: The Income Tax Department has conducted search at various business locations of Hatsun Agro Products related to alleged false claims made by an individual in the company.

Unitech: Plans to raise Rs 1000 crore in the next few months from sale of non-core assets for repayment of its debt.

Maruti Suzuki: Mutual fund houses upped their ante against Maruti by writing another letter to the Japanese carmaker. The second letter follows an 'unsatisfactory response' by Maruti to the initial letter sent jointly by top fund houses.

L&T Finance Holdings and Just Dial: Inclusion in the futures and options segment from Thursday

Hotel Leela Ventures: Board meeting to be held today to evaluate various options for meeting the debt service obligations.

SpiceJet: Another round of massive discounts, under ‘Super Holi Sales' scheme.