Pre-market: Watch out for ITC, SBI, L&T, Sun Pharma

Markets are likely to open higher, amid firm Asian cues, with index heavyweights leading gains in early trades

Markets are likely to open higher, amid firm Asian cues, with index heavyweights leading the gains in early trades.

At 8:30AM, the SGX Nifty was up 13 points at 7,408.     

Asian markets were trading firm tracking gains in US stocks on Friday while easing of tensions in Ukraine also helped improve sentiment. The Nikkei was up 0.7%, Hang Seng and Shanghai were up 0.4% each while Straits Times gained 0.3%.

US markets gained on Friday on the back of encouraging housing data with the broader S&P 500 ending at a record high above 1,900 led by real estate shares. According to the US Commerce Department, new home sales rose 6.4% to 433,000 units.

The Dow Jones gained 63 points to end at 16,606, the broader S&P 500 gained 8 points to end at 1,900.53 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended up 31 points at 4,186.


Stocks in Focus


ITC may rebound after correction on Friday. The FMCG major reported a jump of 18 per cent in its final quarter net profit at Rs 2,278  crore against Rs 1,928 crore a year ago. Net sales for the quarter were Rs 9,145 crore, a jump of 12 per cent on a year ago.

SBI may witness action as the PSU banking major reported a drop in bad loans even as higher provisioning dragged its net profit down 7.8 per cent in the fourth quarter ended March 2014.

SKS Microfinance's Rs 400 crore Qualified Institutional Placement was oversubscribed with CLSA Mauritius being one of the major subscriber to the issue.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court, which had last month issued interim orders restraining the proposed Sun Pharmaceutical-Ranbaxy Laboratories merger following a petition alleging insider trading, on Saturday cleared the decks for the $4-billion deal to go through by lifting the stay.

Hindustan Motors has declared suspension of work at its Uttarpara Plant with effect from May 24, 2014 till further notice.

L&T, IRB Infra among others will be in action after the National Highways Authority of India, responsible for development, maintenance and management of NHs, recently allowed nine of the stressed 23 road projects to reschedule their premium payments, a development that can revive stalled road works and attract investments.

Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) plans to raise up to Rs 1,800 crore this fiscal by selling stakes in some of its assets to partly repay its debt by around Rs 600-700 crore in FY15.