Pre-market: Markets to open higher on firm global cues

Stock markets are likely to open higher on firm Asian cues and overnight gains on Wall Street

Stock markets are likely to open higher on Thursday tracking gains in overseas markets Asian equities were trading higher on Thursday tracking gains on Wall Street. The Nikkei was up 1.4%, while the Straits Times was up 0.6%, Hang Seng rose 0.6% while Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%.

At 8:20AM Indian Standard Time the SGX Nifty was up 40 points at 6,072.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 ended at new closing highs on Wednesday on the back of better-than-expected corporate earnings and on hopes that the US Fed will continue with its monetary stimulus measures.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 71 points, or 0.4%, to end at 15,821.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 14 points, or 0.8% at 1,782. The tech ladenNasdaq Composite Index ended up 46 points or 1.2% at 3,965.58.

Key European shares extended losses to end lower on Wednesday as investors turned cautious on concerns that central banks would start winding down their easy monetary policies. The CAC-40 ended 24 points lower at 4,239.94, the DAX dropped 22 points to end at 9,054.83, while the FTSE-100 ended 97 points lower at 6,630.

STOCKS TO WATCH


Cipla will be in focus after the pharma major's consolidated net profit for the July-September quarter dipped 26.6 per cent to Rs 358 crore, following lower margins at its subsidiary Cipla Medpro. However, consolidated sales of the Mumbai-headquartered pharmaceutical company jumped 14 per cent during the quarter to Rs 2,463 crore. In the corresponding quarter last year, the company had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 488 crore on sales of Rs 2,167 crore.  

Sun Pharma will be in focus after results for the September quarter were way ahead of Street estimates. Net sales at Rs 4,192 crore marked a growth of 58 per cent over the same quarter last year. This was above Bloomberg's estimates of Rs 3,768 crore. The pharma major has also upped its sales growth guidance for FY14.

Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd (SRSL), the country's largest sugar refiner, reported a standalone net loss of Rs 120.3 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal, mainly due to higher expenses. It had clocked a net profit of Rs 7.7 crore in the same period last year..

Tata Steel will be in action after the company reported a Rs 917 crore of consolidated net profit for the quarter ended September 2013. In the same period a year ago, the company posted a net loss of Rs 364 crore. The total income increased 7% to Rs 3,685 crore as against Rs 3,433 crore in September 2012.

Hindustan Copper will be in focus after the state-owned Hindustan Copper posted nearly 42% rise in net profit for the July-September quarter at Rs 62 crore. The Kolkata-based firm had clocked Rs 43.70 crore net profit in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Corporates which are expected to announce their second quarter earnings include GVK Power and IRB Infra among others.