Higher opening seen on firm Asian cues

Asian shares were trading higher with Japan's benchmark Nikkei up over 3%

Markets are likely to open higher tracking sharp gains in its Asian peers and overnight gains on Wall Street.

At 8:30am, the early indicator SGX Nifty was up 55 points at 7,361.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,747 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data.

GLOBAL STOCKS

Asian markets surged ahead on Friday with Japanese shares rising the most after the depreciation of the yen against the dollar. Further, overnight cues from the US amid hopes of monetary easing from ECB and firming up of global crude oil prices also boosted sentiment. The Nikkei was up 3.5%, Shanghai Composite was up 0.9% while Straits Times and Hang Seng were up 1.7%-2.1%

US stocks ended with marginal gains on Thursday after oil prices rebounded and comments from ECB President Mario Draghi raised expectations of further stimulus for Europe. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.7% at 15,883, the S&P 500 ended up 0.5% at 1,869 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended flat at 4,472.

STOCKS IN FOCUS


FMCG major ITC will be in focus ahead of its results later today.

InterGlobe Aviation may gain after the airline reported a 23.7 per cent surge in profit in the December quarter as the operator of IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, benefited from lower fuel prices and higher traffic.

Biopharma major Biocon may firm up after it said third quarter profits rose 13 per cent to Rs 103 crore and revenues by 10 per cent to Rs 828 crore, aided by higher growth in business from its contract research arm Syngene.

Syngene International may see some action after it reported a 31% jump in third quarter  profits to Rs 59 crore and 23% growth in revenues to  Rs 281 crore on improved business from its global clients to help build new drug discovery.

Reliance Capital may firm up after it posted a 10.3 per cent rise in consolidated net profit year-on-year for the third quarter ended December 31, 2015, boosted by strong growth in profits in asset management and commercial finance business.

Deepak Fertilisers may gain after it posted a sharp rise in net profit to Rs 23.47 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015, as against Rs 1.25 crore in the same period last financial year.

Idea Cellular may see some pressure after reported a 0.4 per cent year-on-year decline in its December quarter consolidated net profit at Rs 764.2 crore. This was lower than the Bloomberg consensus estimates of Rs 796 crore.

Natco Pharma may gain after it signed a non-exclusive, royalty free licensing agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool and Bristol-Myers Squibb to manufacture and sell generic versions of the latter's chronic hepatitis C medicine -Daclatasvir Dihydrochloride.