Pre-market: Global cues to take markets lower

India Cements, Zee Enetertainment in focus; BHEL, Tata Steel, SBI to announce results

The markets are likely to trade lower today tracking weak global cues.

US stocks fell on Wednesday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest decline in three weeks, after minutes from the latest US Federal Reserve meeting showed some officials were open to tapering large-scale asset purchases as early as at the June meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended 0.52 per cent lower at 15,307 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.83 per cent to end at 1,655.

The rub-off effect was also felt in Asia with South Korea’s Kospi Index sliding 0.8 per cent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 1.1 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 moved up 1.8 per cent, while the broader Topix Index added 0.8 per cent.

At 730am Indian Standard Time, the SGX Nifty was trading at 6,088 – down 0.3 per cent.

Among individual stocks, Zee Entertainment Enterprises could react to the 10.66 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 180.35 crore for the quarter ended March 2013.

Srei Infrastructure Finance is planning to buy the domestic banking unit of nationalised Austrian lender Hypo Alpe Adria for 65.5 million euros, reports suggest.

India Cements could remain under pressure on reports that the Mumbai Crime Branch may soon summon Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of N Srinivasan, vice chairman of the company and Chairman of Board of Control for Cricket in India, for questioning in the case related to betting in IPL matches.

Also keep a tab on BHEL, Dish TV India, JSW Steel, Indraprastha Gas, NIIT, SBI and Tata Steel as they will announce their respective March quarter results today.