Pre-market: Flat opening seen tracking subdued Asian cues

Markets likely to open flat and remain range bound tracking lacklustre cues from Asia.

This article has been modified. Please see the correction at the end.

Markets are likely to open flat on Monday and remain range bound tracking lacklustre cues from Asia.

At 8:25AM, the SGX Nifty was dpwn 7 points at 6,155.     

Meanwhile, the February derivative contracts are set to expire on Wednesday as Thursday the markets are closed on account of Mahashivratri. Further, the government will also release the GDP numbers for the third quarter ended December 2013.

Asian stocks were trading mixed on Monday with Shanghai Composite fell nearly 2% and Hang Seng was down over 1% while Nikkei was up 0.6% and Straits Times gained 0.1%.

US stocks ended lower on Friday amid profit taking in late trades ahead of the options' expiry. Further, weak existing home sales data also seems to have hurt investor confidence.

Existing home sales declined 5.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million in January 2014 compared with 4.87 million in December 2013. Existing homes sales in January 2014 stood at an 18-month low compared with 4.59 million in July 2012.

The Dow Jones ended down 0.2% at 16,103, the S&P 500 lost 0.2% to close at 1,836 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended 0.1% lower at 4,263.

Stocks in Europe ended higher with France leading the charge after its benchmark share index CAC-40 touched its highest level in five-and-half years on the back of encouraging earnings from large corporates.

The CAC-40 ended up 0.6% at 4,381, DAX gained 0.4% to close at 9,657 and the FTSE-100 ended up 0.4% at 6,838.


Stocks in Focus

Cement shares are likely to extend gains after the sharp gains in late trades on Friday on talks that some producers are likely to hike cement prices.

Power companies will be in focus. The Association of Power Producers (APP) said the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission's (CERC) orders on compensatory tariff for the imported coal based power projects of Tata Power and Adani Power in Gujarat would go a long way in restoring the economics of the generation projects facing financial hardships and in reviving the investors’ sentiment.

Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd. (GPPL) has finally received an approval from the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) for its expansion plan. While the company had received an approval in June 2012, the same had been challenged by an NGO in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Tribunal in its August 22, 2013 order had kept the company's environment approval in abeyance for a period of six months.

Airline companies may see some action after The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday dismissed objections raised by top Indian private carriers and cleared AirAsia India’s proposal to start greenfield operations in the country.

GMR Infrastructure  will be in action after a group of investors led by Singapore-based Temasek and IDFC Consortium have agreed to pick up Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) worth Rs 1,136.6 crore.

CLARIFICATION
This article had mentioned that derivatives expiry was on Friday, which is not true. Derivatives expiry for the month of February is on Wednesday February 25. This has been corrected. We regret the error.