Pre-market: Subdued start seen in opening trades

Markets likely to remain subdued in early trades tracking weakness in their Asian peers.

Stock markets are likely to remain subdued in early trades on Thursday tracking weakness in their Asian peers.

Key Asian indices except for Straits Times were trading marginally lower as investors turned cautious ahead of the ECB meeting and US GDP data to be released later in the day. The Straits Times was up 0.2%. The Nikkei was down 0.3%. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.4% while Hang Seng was down 0.7%.

At 8:20AM Indian Standard Time the SGX Nifty was down 6 points at 6,252.

US benchmark share indices ended mixed on Wednesday with the Dow Jones ending at a new record high led by technology shares such as Microsoft and IBM.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 129 points, or 0.8%, to end at 15,746.88. The

Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed 7 points, or 0.4% higher, at 1,770.49. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 8 points or 0.2% at 3,931.95.

Key European shares ended with marginal gains on Wednesday after upbeat economic data as UK factory output increased to 0.9% in September from August. The CAC-40 gained 34 points to end at 4,286.93, the DAX rose 32 points to end at 9,040.87 while the FTSE-100 ended flat with negative bias at 6,741.69 weighed down by selling pressure in Experian Plc.

STOCKS TO WATCH

Supreme Infra will be in focus after Reliance Mutual Fund sold just over 90,000 shares at an average price of Rs 167, data on the BSE showed.

Wockhardt may see some gains after the company said that the UK regulator has allowed the Company to manufacture and supply most of the products manufactured from the company's Nani Daman facility.

Thermax will be in action after the company reported a sharp decline of Rs 30.16 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013 compared with Rs 91.06 in the same quarter last fiscal.

Jubilant FoodWorks will be in action after Fidelity Trust has bought 3.71 lakh shares values at nearly Rs 49 crore.

Express distribution and supply chain company Gati Ltd will be in focus after it posted Rs 5.76 crore net profit for the second quarter ended September 30 as compared to a loss of Rs 5.27 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Realty firm Omaxe will be in action after it said that it will issue 10 bonus shares to public shareholders for every 39 shares held by them in order to meet market regulator SEBI norm on minimum 25% public shareholding.

Bangalore-based realty developer Sobha Developers posted a 13% jump in its net profit for the Second quarter of current financial year at Rs 56 crore as compared to Rs 50 crore in the Q2 of FY 2013.