Uptrend in markets to continue; June F&O expiry in focus

Consumer driven and sugar stocks are likely to be in focus in early trades

The uptrend in the markets is likely to continue on Thursday amid firm Asian cues and robust rally in overnight trades on Wall Street as near term concerns over Brexit eased. Further, intra-day volatility is likely ahead of the expiry of June F&O expiry today.

At 8:35am, the early indicator SGX Nifty was up 53 points at 8,261.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 103 crore, as per provisional stock exchange data.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian markets were trading higher tracking overnight gains on Wall Street with Singapore and Hong Kong stocks gaining the most with over 1.5% gains while Nikkei was up nearly 1% amid a softening yen while trading in Chinese shares remained lacklustre with the benchmark Shanghai Composite trading flat with positive bias.

US stocks extended gains on Wednesday to end over 1.5% higher and recover all the losses of 2016 after near term worries over Brexit started easing. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 1.6% at 17,695, the S&P 500 ended up 1.7% at 2,071 and the Nasdaq ended up 1.9% at 4,779.


STOCKS

Larsen & Toubro may see some action after the company's IT subsidiary L&T Infotech is set to hit the capital market with an IPO in July.

Sugar stocks such as Dalmia Sugar, Dwarikesh Sugar, Dhampur Sugar, DCM Shriram, Shree Renuka Sugars and Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar may extend gains after global sugar prices rose further.

Consumer driven stocks are likely to extend gains after the Cabinet's approval to the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission will boost spending across various sectors. Auto stocks, Titan, PVR, Asian Paints, Future Retail and Trent are some of the stocks likely to be in action today.

Minda Industries may gain after the board approved stock split of equity shares of Rs 10 each into five shares of Rs 2 each.

Coal India and Solar Energy Corporation has signed two agreements for solar power project in Madhya Pradesh.

LT Foods will be in focus after the company said it has incorporated a subsidiary named as "LT Foods International Limited" in United Kingdom for strengthening its presence in Europe.