Indices to open positive

The indices saw a free fall in late trade on Wednesday perhaps due to some basket selling by a foreign fund. 

The results are slowly pouring in and attention will be on tech companies today. The fourth quarter is typically a soft quarter for Indian IT companies as client’s freeze their IT budgets for the calendar year and its allocation. The spend is weak but accelerates from Q1. At the broader level, the business environment for offshore vendors is gradually improving with demand from key markets of US and Europe remaining fairly strong. But all that will be reflected in the current quarter (Q1). TCS is expected to post 3%+ qoq organic constant currency growth in Q4 FY15 while Mindtree is likely to report flat revenues in cc terms impacted by ramp‐up deferment in projects at a couple of clients in the Retail & CPG vertical.

The outlook is marginally positive start. The indices saw a free fall in late trade on Wednesday perhaps due to some basket selling by a foreign fund. Global cues are positive. The Dow rose 0.42% while S&P 500 gained 0.51%. Nasdaq added 0.68%. Asian markets were trading mixed. Japan's Nikkei is down while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is up.

Rupee is seen firming up as reports indicate banks may be selling  dollars following its weakness against the euro. At the same time PSUs are expected to buy dollars which will prevent any undue appreciation in the Indian currency.

Governor Raghuram Rajan will be attending G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings and World Bank Spring Meetings 2015 at International Monetary Fund, Washington DC. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi meanwhile is touring Canada.

CMI board will meet today to consider issue of equity shares on preferential basis.

The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at -2.33% (provisional) for the month of March, 2015 (over March, 2014) as compared to -2.06% (provisional) for the previous month and 6.00% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was -2.33% compared to a build up rate of 6.00% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Nokia said it has agreed to buy Alcatel-Lucent in an all-share transaction that values the smaller French rival at US$16.58 billion, according to reports.Report said that Nokia will give Alcatel-Lucent shareholders 0.55 shares in the combined company for each of their old shares.The deal will be finalised in the first half of 2016, says report.

SpiceJet is further increasing its international services with the addition of two more weekly flights on the Ahmedabad – Muscat sector, taking the total frequency to 5 flights a week. The additional flights are effective from May 13th 2015.

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd has received USFDA Approval for Cefixime for Oral Suspension USP.The approved ANDAs are bioequivalent and therapeutically equivalent to the reference listed drug product (RLD) Suprax Oral Suspension USP 100mg/5mL and 200mg/5mL respectively of Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Walmart India Pvt. Ltd, wholly owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc announced that Pankaj More has been appointed as Head – Technology.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and the Technion – Israel institute of technology announced that their respective subsidiaries have entered into an exclusive worldwide research and license agreement. This agreement aims at the development of a joint project, based on new findings by Nobel Prize laureate Distinguished Professor Aaron Ciechanover, Dr. Gila Maor and Professor Ofer Binah, that can potentially lead to the development of novel anti-cancer drugs. The pre-clinical research was funded thus far by Dr. Alfred Mann.  

Asian Oilfield Services Ltd has hit 10% upper circuit 13% at Rs 39 after its Dubai Arm bagged Order Worth $10 m from Gazprom.

Ashoka Buildcon was in focus as the company announced opening of its QIP issue. The company's board fixed a floor price of Rs 185.05 per share for the QIP issue. Last year, the company's shareholders had approved a proposal for raising up to Rs 850 crore through the QIP route. The stock touched a fresh 52-week high at Rs. 205, but ended eventually unchanged at Rs. 193.

Lancor Holdings jumped 4% to Rs. 104 following Madras High Court approval for the proposed amalgamation plan. The stock, however, reversed gains in the late trades and ended 3.4% lower at Rs. 96.65.

Alstom T&D India gained 0.6% at Rs. 582 after the company won an Rs 56.9 crore order from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for its Challakere unit in Chitradurga, Karnataka.

Aurobindo Pharma gained 0.7% at Rs. 1,360 after the company announced that it received final approvals from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market Cefixime for Oral Suspension USP 100mg/5ml and 200mg/5ml respectively for Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Torrent Pharma rallied to a fresh all-time high at Rs. 1,335 on talks of eyeing Mumbai-based Encore's dermatology business.