Pre-market: Markets likely to open lower on weak global cues

Stock markets are likely to open lower on Friday tracking weak global cues.

Stocks in Asia were trading lower tracking overnight losses on Wall Street with Japan's Nikkei  down over 1% as investors remained cautious ahead of US jobs data later today. The Nikkei was down 1% while the Straits Times was down 0.5%. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.4% while Hang Seng was down 0.5%.

At 8:30AM Indian Standard Time the SGX Nifty was down 24 points at 6,200.

US benchmark share indices ended lower on Thursday after better-than-expected economic data raised concerns that Fed might start withdrawing its bond buying programme sooner than expected. However, Twitter which listed on the NYSE was the stock in focus after it surged 73% to end at $44.90 compared with the offer price of $26.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 153 points, or 1%, to end at 15,593.98. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed 23 points lower, or 1.3% lower, at 1,747.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 75 points at 3,857.33.

Key European shares ended mixed on Thursday. The CAC-40 lost 6 points to end at 4,280.99, the DAX gained 40 points to end at 9,081.03 while the FTSE-100 ended 45 points lower at 6,697.22.

STOCKS TO WATCH

Nestle India, Tech Mahindra and YES Bank will be in action today after they were included in the MSCI India index.

Tata Coffee may extend losses after reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 30 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013 (Q2) against profit of Rs 45 .85 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

IT services firm Tech Mahindra will be in focus after it posted a 57.6% growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 718.4 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, aided by growth across verticals especially retail, travel and logistics and uptick in demand from Europe.

Eicher Motors may gain after it posted 62.74% rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 107.43 crore for the third quarter ended September 30, 2013. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 66.01 crore during the same period of previous year.

SpiceJet may face selling pressure after the airline posted a loss of Rs 559 crore in the second quarter of this financial year, three and a half times the loss in the same quarter of 2012-13. The record loss comes after a positive first quarter, when the airline posted a net profit  of Rs 50 crore.