Pre-market: Markets to open higher tracking overseas gains

Markets are expected to open higher on Wednesday tracking gains in Asia and overnight rally on the Wall Street.

According to the technical expert Rex Cano, “the NSE index may face near resistance around 5,850, and far-off hurdle at 5,900. On the downside, fresh weakness can be expected on break of 5,750”.

At 8:35AM IST, SGX Nifty was up 20 points at 5875.

Meanwhile Asian shares gained in early trades on hopes of improvement in US quarterly earnings after strong performance by Alcoa.

Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.4% to 14,526, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 0.5% to 3,196 while China’s Shanghai Composite was tad down to 1,965 in the opening deals.

Overnight, US stocks rallied on expectations of earnings improvement.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 75.65 points, or 0.50 percent, to end at 15,300.34. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 11.86 points, or 0.72 percent, to 1,652.32, the highest close since the end of May. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 19.43 points, or 0.56 percent, to close at 3,504.26.

Investors are now keenly awaiting the US central bank minutes from its June policy meeting and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech later in the day to get a clear perspective on US growth recovery.

Following stocks are expected to move on the exchanges today:

Reliance Petroinvestments, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), has approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal against the capital markets regulator, which imposed a Rs 11-crore penalty on the company in the Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd (IPCL) insider trading case.

Infosys’ global head of sales and marketing Basab Pradhan (pictured) has announced his resignation, a little more than two years after rejoining the information technology firm.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited (AHEL) said that it had received its board's approval to invest Rs 2,250 crore targeting expansion over the next three years.

JSW Steel has sought shareholders' nod to raise the remuneration of Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal's son Parth, now working as "Economic Analyst", by up to 150% to Rs 30 lakh per annum.