Nifty seen heading towards 7,450 tracking global cues

Markets are likely to open higher tracking gains in their Asian peers

Markets are likely to open higher on Monday tracking gains in their Asian peers and rally in US stocks on Friday. Further, volatility cannot be ruled ahead of the expiry of January derivative contracts in the truncated week.

At 8:30am, the early indicator SGX Nifty was up 30 points at 7,456.

Markets will be closed on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 on account of Republic Day holiday.

Further, investors would keenly await signals from the US Federal Reserve at its two-day FOMC meet which begins on January 26.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian markets edged higher on Monday tracking sharp gains on Wall Street on Friday while the uptick in global crude oil prices amid the harsh weather conditions in the U.S. East coast. Further, investors will also await the decision by the Bank of Japan from its two-day meet which begins on Thursday, January 28. Nikkei was up 1.4% while Shanghai Composite was up 0.7%. Among others, Hang Seng was up 1.8% and Straits Times rose 1.5%.

US stocks ended higher on Friday with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 gaining over 2% each after crude oil prices prices rebounded amid expectations of demand because of the severe cold weather conditions in US and Europe. Further, US existing-home sales surged 14.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.46 million units in December compared with 4.76 million in the previous month, as per the data released by the National Association of Realtors. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 1.3% at 16,094, while the broader S&P 500 closed 2% higher at 1,907 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended up 2.7% at 4,591.

STOCKS IN FOCUS

ITC may be under pressure after the FMCG reported lower-than-expected revenue and profit for the third quarter. Revenues grew 2.6 per cent y-o-y to Rs 9,177 crore, way below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 9,451 crore. Net profit rose 0.7 per cent y-o-y to Rs 2,653 crore missing estimates of Rs 2,756 crore.

InterGlobe Aviation, which manages the country's largest airline under the Indigo brand, could see a rebound after the sharp slump on Friday amid uncertainty over delay in the delivery of the Airbus320neo.

Reliance Communications could see some pressure after the company posted a 14.9 per cent drop in net profit at Rs 171 crore for the quarter ended December 2015, against Rs 201 crore in the year-ago period owing to shrinking margins in the competitive telecom sector.

SpiceJet may firm up after it reported its highest quarterly profit for the October-December period, on the back of low fuel prices. Net profit was Rs 238 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 275 crore in the same period last year.

Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India may gain after it reported 33.24% increase in net profit at Rs 31.26 crore for the third quarter ended December.

Godrej Properties may see some uptick after the company today announced a partnership with Lotus Greens to develop a 4 million square feet residential project at Noida.