Pre-market: Markets likely to see soft opening

Markets are likely to see a soft opening as investors continue to book profits following the recent sharp run.

U.S. stocks edged lower Tuesday as a lack of conviction kept investors sidelined. Fear of Spain's banks facing a greater capital shortfall than previously estimated kept investors jittery. Dow slipped 33 points to 13482 while Nasdaq ended flat.

In Asia, an upbeat US manufacturing data was ignored by markets as Nikkei, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted traded flat. At 700 hrs IST the SGX Nifty was down 30 points at 5,774.

GMDC may come in focus as Vedanta plans to source bauxite from the company. GMDC has set a basic floor price of Rs 800 per tonne for sale of bauxite upto 50000 tonnes and 750 per tonne above 50000 tonnes.

Kingfisher, which was in the news recently for a partial lockout, will be in focus. According to news reports, the company has promised to pay salaries of the staff held up for last six months in the next few days.

Automobile stocks will also be in focus after companies came out with their monthly sales figures. However, sales in India continued to be low in September, with seven of the country’s leading manufacturers together selling 192,424 units, a growth of a mere 0.6%.