Pre-market: Soft opening seen tracking weak Asian cues

Markets are likely to open slightly higher tracking overnight rise on Wall Street but weakness in Asia is likely to cap further gains. Further, traders are expected to remain cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy review later today.

At 8:30AM, the SGX Nifty was up 16 points at 6,576.     

Asian shares were trading lower as investors remained cautious amid the ongoing geo-political situation emerging in Ukraine and ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy review later today. Japan's Nikkei was down 0.3%, Shanghai Composite was down 0.8%, Hang Seng was trading flat with negative bias while Straits Times was trading 0.7% lower.

US stocks ended higher for the second straight session on Tuesday after worries over Ukrainian crisis eased. Technology shares were among the top gainers.

The Dow Jones ended up 0.6% at 16,336, the S&P 500 gained 0.7% to close at 1,872 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended 1.2% higher at 4,333.

Stocks in Europe ended higher after fears over crisis in Ukraine eased. The CAC-40 ended up 1% at 4,313, DAX gained 0.7% to close at 9,242 and the FTSE-100 ended up 0.6% at 6,605.


Stocks in Focus

Cairn India will be in focus after the its UK parent Cairn Energy Plc has put on hold its buyback programme.

Ashok Leyland will be in focus after the company sold 50 lakh shares of IndusInd Bank.

TCS will be in focus after the company in an analyst meet said that Q4 growth is likely to remain subdued.

Polaris will be in action after the board approved demerger of its product business.

State Bank of Travancore will be in focus after the board fixed April 4 as the record date for payment of interim dividend, if declared.

Mah & Mah will see some action after the company in a conference call said that volume growth in FY14 is likely to be around 21%. The company also said it will launch new vehicles.