Weak opening seen; Tata Motors, Idea in focus

Benchmark share indices are likely to open lower amid weak Asian cues and overnight losses on Wall Street. Further, markets are likely to remain volatile in the latter half of the trading session ahead of the January F&O expiry tomorrow.

At 8:30AM, the early indicator SGX Nifty was down 18 points at 8,900

Most Asian markets were trading lower tracking overnight losses on Wall Street. Shares in Japan were trading flat as gains in index heavyweights SoftBank Corp and Fast Retailing helped offset losses from heavy machinery makers. Japan's bencmark Nikkei was trading flat with negative bias while Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.2%. However, the Hang Seng was ruling steady with negative bias while shares in China extended losses and were down 1.4%.

Major US benchmark share indices ended lower amid weak earnings from large corporations and discouraging economic data also dampened investor sentiment, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, DuPont Co were among the top losers.However, Apple Inc rallied after market hours on encouraging revenue growth driven by high sales of iPhone mobile phone series.

US business investment spending dropped for the fourth straight in December after a similar decline in November. Core capital goods orders slipped 0.6% in December.

The Dow Jones ended down 1.7% at 17,387.21, the broader S&P 500 closed 1.3% lower at 2,029.55 and tech-laden Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.9% to end the session at 4,681.50.

Stocks to watch

Tata Motors will be in focus on media reports that the company plans to raise up to Rs 7,500 crore via rights issue of equity shares and DVR shares for expansion and reduction of debt.

Idea Cellular may gains after it posted a 64 percent rise in quarterly profit as it added more subscribers than rivals did, boosting data and talk time usage. Idea Cellular, the first telecoms carrier to report results for the December quarter, said it earned Rs 767 crore in its third quarter, compared with Rs 470 crore in the same quarter last year.

Amara Raja Batteries will see some pressure after posting marginal rise in net profit because of higher other expenses. The company posted 7.7% increase in its net profit at Rs 102.34 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014.

Titan may see some action after the Tata Group company reported 15.19% increase in standalone net profit at Rs 190.73 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014.

Union Bank of India may see some pressure after the state-owned bank reported a 13.3 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 302.4 crore for the December quarter. The bank had a net profit of Rs 348.94 crore in the third quarter of 2013-14.Net interest income rose eight per cent to Rs 2,120 crore during the third quarter from Rs 1,963 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous financial year.

Karnataka Bank may see some action after net profit for the quarter ended December 2014 remained flat at Rs 106.9 crore, compared to Rs 106.7 crore in the year-ago period because of higher provisioning.

State-run Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (GSFC) posted a marginal 2% rise in net profit for the quarter-ended December 31, 2014, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in a filing on Tuesday. GSFC posted a net profit of Rs 103.47 crores in the recently-ended quarter compared to Rs 101.20 crores for the corresponding period in the previous financial year, the company said.