Markets likely to begin lower

Headlines for the day:

Sugar firms to look up only from October

Vedanta buyout of Cairn India likely today

RBI to address concerns on new HTM bond order



Events for the day:

Major corporate action

Monthly inflation to be announced today, to view the update on this, kindly log on to Sharekhan.com at 12 pm.
SKS Microfinance to be listed today
Results: G.S.Auto International, Shree Ganesh Forgings

Updates on global events

The US Consumer Price Index for the year ended July 2010 stood at 1.20% as compared to 1.10% in the previous month.

The US Business Inventories for the month ended June 2010 stood at 0.30% as compared to 0.20% in the previous month.

Pre-market report

Global signals

The European shares made modest gains for a second straight day on Friday (August 13, 2010), but finished lower for the week as investors continued to worry about the strength of the economic recovery.

The US Stocks ended lower on Friday, with all three indexes on track for their worst week in six weeks as mixed economic data did little to convince investors of the recovery's strength.

The Asian markets were trading lower with the Japanese market dragged down by weaker-than-expected economic growth. SGX Nifty was trading 17.5 points lower, pointing to a negative start on the Dalal Street.

Indian Indices

After ending the previous session on a higher note, the Indian indices are expected to take a breather at the start. Japanese Nikkei fell more than 1% on poor gross domestic product (GDP) data, which weighed on the Asian indices.

Following its Asian peers, the domestic markets are likely to open lower. The domestic indices may trade range-bound as the earnings season is over, which may fail to provide any support. The monthly inflation numbers are going to be announced today, which may lead to some volatility in the markets.

Vedanta buyout of Cairn India is likely today, so stocks specific action may be seen in Sterlite Industries and Cairn India.

Commodity cues

Oil futures prices trailed below $80 a barrel on Friday, on downbeat economic data, as the crude oil futures for September delivery dipped by $0.35, to settle at $75.39 a barrel.

Daily trend of FII/MF investment in equities

Foreign funds have bought Indian equities worth a net of Rs449.40 crore on August 13, 2010, substantially higher than Rs192.8 crore on Thursday (August 12, 2010).