Pre-market: Watch out for Essar Oil, MRPL, JKumar Infra

Markets are likely to open marginally higher but further gains may be capped on profit taking

Markets are likely to open marginally higher but further gains may be capped as investors are likely to continue profit booking in cyclicals after sharp gains recently.

At 8:25AM, the SGX Nifty was up 20 points at 7,310.

Asian shares were trading mixed tracking overnight losses on Wall Street. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan has kept its key policy rates unchanged. The Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were trading with marginal gains while the Nikkei and Straits Times were down 0.3% each.

US stocks ended lower on Tuesday on talks that the Federal Reserve would hike policy rates sooner-than-expected and weak earnings from retailers. The Dow Jones ended down 0.8% at 16,374, S&P 500 lost 0.7% at 1,873 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended down 0.7% at 4,097.

Stocks in focus

Punj Lloyd will be under pressure on disappointing fourth quarter earnings on the back of higher interest costs.

Luggage carrier maker VIP Industries today reported over three-fold increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 20.3 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014 on the account of exceptional income.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) today reported a net profit of Rs 1067 crore in the fourth quarter on back of foreign exchange and inventory gains.

Higher refining margins and foreign exchange gains helped Ruias-promoted Essar Oil, India's second-largest private refiner, post a five-fold jump in fourth-quarter net profit. The company reported a net profit of Rs 1,008 crore in the January-March 2014 quarter, up from Rs 200 crore a year earlier. During the quarter, Essar's Gross refining margin or converting every barrel of crude oil into fuel stood at $10.12 per barrel against $9.06 during the January-March 2013 quarter.

J Kumar Infra will see some action on the back of robust Q4 numbers and orders worth Rs 467.5 crore.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a letter dated May 7, warned Sun Pharmaceutical the responses given by it on the import alert on its Karkhadi plant in Gujarat lacked sufficient corrective actions.

Essar Shipping may see some pressure after the company announced dismal results for Q4 with consolidated net loss of Rs 165.7 crore and sharp decline in revenues to Rs 480 crore from Rs 729 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.