Pre-Market: Positive opening seen

Auto, cement and aviation stocks in focus

The markets are likely to kick-start the first trading day of the second half of the calendar year 2012 on a positive note.

For the first half of 2012, the Sensex gained 12.8%, while the Nifty moved up 14.2% since the last trading day in December 2011.

The short-term trend for the Nifty is up and the bias will continue to remain positive as long as it sustains above 5,190, analysts say.

Asian shares rose on Monday with sentiment brightening at the start of the third quarter after Europe agreed to shore up the region's banks. Japan's Nikkei average opened up 1.1%.

At 805 am Indian Standard Time, the SGX Nifty was trading at 5,307 – up 13 points.

Among individual stocks, HDFC Bank could be in focus today after the bank cut its benchmark lending rate by 0.2%.

Also keep a tab on OnMobile. Smallcap World Fund, one of the largest shareholders in the company, has sold 4.82 million shares in three different transactions.

In other developments, Pfizer has taken Alembic Pharmaceuticals to a US court to stop the latter from trying to sell a generic version of its anti-depressant drug, while LIC has reduced its stake in Tata Global Beverages by 2 - 11.79%.

Keep a tab on auto and cement counters as these companies react to their sales figures for June 2012.

Aviation stocks could also be flying high today on reports that the oil marketing companies have cut jet fuel prices by 2%.