Pre-market: Lower opening seen on weak Asian cues

Markets are likely to open marginally lower amid weak Asian cues and flat closing for the US markets in overnight trades.

At 8:35AM, the SGX Nifty was down 23 points at 6,883.    

Asian markets except for Japan were trading lower as the emerging crisis in Ukraine continued to weigh on market sentiment. Japan's Nikkei was up 0.7%. Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%, Hang Seng dropped 0.7% and Straits Times was trading 0.4% lower.

Major US stock indices ended flat on Thursday with the tech-laden Nasdaq ending firm led by gains in Apple shares on on account of Good Friday.

The Dow Jones ended down 4.3 points at 16,497.35, the broader S&P 500 gained 3 points at 1,878.61 and the tech laden Nasdaq ended up 21 points at 4,148.34.


Stocks in Focus


Cairn India may be under pressure on concerns of lower production guidance.

Muthoot Finance may see some action as the IPP ends today.

Tata Teleservices (Mah) will see some activity on reports that NTT DoCoMo plans to
sell its 26% stake in the company.

Ambuja Cements may see some gains after it recorded a net profit of Rs 520 crore for the quarter ended March, a rise of 6.6 per cent compared with Rs 488 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The company follows a January-December accounting year. It not only beat group company ACC on profits but surprised analysts, who had expected Ambuja’s adjusted profit (excluding one-off items) to remain flat.

Shashun Pharma will be in action after the board approved allotment of shares and convertible warrants to promoters.

Granules India may firm up on robust March quarter earnings.

Deepak Fertilisers may see some gains after the company's wholly-owned subsidiary on April 23 acquired 0.84% of share capital of Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilisers.

Biocon will react to results which were announced today. On a standalone basis profit for the March 2014 quarter was up at Rs 86.74 crore compared with Rs 38.29 crore in the March 2013 quarter.