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

Stock markets are likely to higher on Thursday amid firm cues from Asia and overnight gains on Wall Street. Later, the markets are likely to remain range bound ahead of the expiry of November derivative contracts today.

Asian markets were trading higher in early trades with Japan's Nikkei leading the gains in the continent after the yen eased agains the US dollar on the back of encouraging economic data from the US. Japan's Nikkei was up 1.3%. Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.8% while Shanghai COmposite gained 0.4% and Hang Seng rose 0.7%.
 
At 8:30AM Indian Standard Time the SGX Nifty was up 33 points at 6,096.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 surged on Wednesday to end at fresh new highs while the tech-laden Nasdaq ended at a 13-year high on the back of encouraging economic data and better-than-expected earnings from personal computer major Hewlett-Packard.

Jobless claims for unemployment benefits last week was lower-than-expected and the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on consumer sentiment index rose better-than-expected to 75.1 in November compared with October's reading of 73.2.

The Dow Jones Industrial average ended up 24 points, or 0.1%, to end at 16,097.33. The

Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 4 points, or 0.2% at 1,807.23. The tech laden

Nasdaq Composite Index rose 27 points or 0.7% at 4,044.75.

Key European shares ended higher on Wednesday on higher-than-expected earnings, coalition deal between conservatives and social democrats and encouraging consumer sentiment data from Germany. The CAC-40 ended up 15 points up at 4,293.06, the DAX rose 61 points or 0.7% to end at 9,351.13, while the FTSE-100 ended up 13 points or 0.2% at 6,649.47.

STOCKS TO WATCH

Alstom T&D will be in action after the company received approval for IPP share sale which is expected to begin from Nov 29 in a price-band of Rs 159-174 per share.

Gammon India will be in focus as lenders approved a package that involved restructuring debt of about Rs 15,000 crore, Gammon India on Wednesday said it would seek shareholders' nod to increase the company's authorised share capital 82 times - from Rs 176 crore to Rs 15,047 crore.

Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd (APSEZ), India’s largest private port developer, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Belgian Port of Zeebrugge, to act as a strategic entry port for the European market.

Shree Ganesh Jewellery may be in action after the company reported a net loss of Rs 1,048 crore for the third quarter ended September 30 compared with a profit of Rs 85.62 crore in the same quarter last year.