Pre-market: Soft opening on cards; SGX Nifty up 40 points

Markets are likely to make a soft opening tracking mixed global cues.  The early indicator, SGX Nifty was up by 40 points at 6,037 at 0825 hrs.

Further, the government will unveil data on inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) for January 2014 today.

On the global front, US stocks rose on Thursday, with the Nasdaq up for a sixth straight session, as investors looked past disappointing data on jobs and consumer spending, chalking the weakness up to weather instead of fundamentals.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 63.32 points or 0.4%, to 16,027.26, the S&P 500 gained 10.51 points or 0.58%, to 1,829.77 and the Nasdaq Composite added 39.384 points or 0.94%, to 4,240.672.

Asian shares rose on the final trading day of the week as investors digested the latest batch of Chinese data for further trading cues.

Hang Seng rose 122.43 points at 22287.96. Straits Times was up 1.17 points at 3041.07. Japan's Nikkei was down 13.51 points at 14521.23.

STOCKS TO WATCH

Britannia Inds, Den Networks, Dishman Pharma, DLF, HDIL, IVRCL, M&M, Nestle India, REC, SAIL, Simplex Infra and SBI will unveil their third quarter earnings today.

After 10 days of aggressive bidding by telecom companies, the government garnered an estimated Rs 61,162.22 crore from the auction of 900-MHz and 1,800-MHz spectrum, which ended on Thursday. Telecom stocks will be in focus.

According to sources close to the development, the government is likely to give 10 per cent discount for ONGC and Oil India from the current market price.

Following the Office of Fair Trading of the UK (OFT)’s directive United Spirits Ltd (USL) would have to sell at least 7% of its scotch whisky subsidiary Whyte & Mackay (W&M), USL has said it is evaluating various options for the move.

ONGC has posted a 28 per cent jump in net profit for the quarter ended December, as currency depreciation boosted realisations in rupee terms.