Pre-market: Lower opening seen on weak global cues

Markets are likely to open lower tracking weak Asian cues and overnight losses on Wall Street

Markets are likely to open lower tracking weakness in Asia and overnight losses on Wall Street. Further, selling by foreign funds will continue to weigh on market sentiment.

At 8:35AM, the early indicator SGX Nifty was trading 74 points lower at 7,878.

Foreign funds were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 695 crore on Tuesday.

Asian markets were trading sharply lower tracking overnight losses on Wall Street with shares in Japan losing the most. The Nikkei was down over 2% while Hang Seng and Straits Times were down nearly 1% while Shanghai COmposite slipped 0.3%.

Stocks on Wall Street ended lower on Wednesday as investors continued to trim positions on rising worries that global growth concerns could hurt earnings of US companies. Further, US retail sales and producer prices were both lower last month. The Dow Jonws ended down 173 points at 16,142, the broader S&P 500 slipped 15 points to end at 1,862 and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite ended 12 points lower at 4,215.

European shares also witnessed a sell-off amid growth concerns after weak export data from Germany, Europe's largest economy.


Stocks to watch

Tata Steel on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Geneva-based Klesch group for the potential sale of its long products business in Europe and associated distribution activities. Analysts said the division accounted for 25 per cent of Tata Steel’s European operations.

Oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC may gain on the back of weakening global crude oil prices. Brent crude price slipped to 4-year lows.

Bajaj Auto may be under pressure after it posted a 29 per cent year-on-year drop in net profit for the quarter ended September. The Pune-based company reported a net profit of Rs 591 crore, compared with Rs 837 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Mindtree may see some gains after it reported net profit of Rs 137.4 crore for the second quarter, ending September 30, up 6.8 per cent year-on-year. Revenue for the quarter was up 15.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis at Rs 888.6 crore. The company has beat market expectations, as analysts expected a drop in net profits on a sequential basis.

Cigarette stocks such as ITC, Godfrey Philips will see some pressure as they will have to more than double the space dedicated to health warnings and their graphic representation on cigarette packs.

DLF may continue to be under pressure that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is planning to write to other regulatory bodies about the lapses at the real estate firm.

Prestige Estate has released its operational performance for the Jul-Sep quarter. The company said it has sold 1,375 residential units and 0.21 million square feet of commercial space amounting to Rs 1486 crore in sales, up 29% from  the same quarter last fiscal.

Hero MotoCorp and TCS will be in focus ahead of their second quarter earnings due for release later today.