Pre-market: Shares may open higher, Maruti results key

Asian markets mixed in early trades

Markets are likely to mirror cues from global peers and open in the green this morning. Among the major companies to announce their results today are Aban Offshore, Maruti Suzuki and Reliance Power.

U.S. stocks closed mixed Thursday, with shares of Apple weighing on the Nasdaq, as investors focused on the latest corporate results and economic data. The Dow added 0.33% at 13,825.

In Asia, markets were trading on a mixed note. Hang Seng, Nikkei was up 2% at 10,847 while Shanghai, Kospi and Taiwan slipped in trades. At 700 hrs IST the SGX Nifty was up 15 points at 6,039.

In individual stocks, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) is set to start importing coal from its Mozambique mine, where production will begin this year. This may bring the tsock into focus.

Also watch out for Suzlon. The troubled wind energy turbine maker got a two-year interest holiday from its lenders. Under corporate debt restructuring, a consortium of 19 lenders restructured Rs 9,500 crore of its Rs 13,000-crore net debt.

Larsen and Toubro, the infrastructure major, on Thursday reported a 13 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 1,122 crore in the December quarter, compared with Rs 991 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Shares of L-&-T are likely to react to the numbers.