Pre-market: Positive trades likely

Ultratech, EIH, CIL to be in focus

The markets are likely to trade sideways though with a positive bias after witnessing two straight days of gains this week.

US stocks rose for a third straight day on Tuesday, pushing the S&P above 1,400 for the first time since early May. On the other hand, the Dow Jones industrial average moved up 0.4 per cent.

Asian shares rose to a three-month high on Wednesday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.2 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average opened up one per cent.

Back home, technical analysts suggest that the Nifty can seek support around 5,310 – 5,295 but faces resistance around 5,360 – 5,380 levels. At 805 am Indian Standard Time, the SGX Nifty was trading at 5,368 up 28 points.

Among individual stocks, Reliance Industries will be in focus today after it got conditional approval to invest over a billion dollars to arrest the sagging output at its KG-D6 gas block.

UltraTech Cement could be in focus today on reports that one of its promoters, Umang Commercial Company, has sold 1.37 lakh shares in the firm for Rs 22.42 crore.

Promoters of EIH Limited, which runs the Oberoi and Trident chain of hotels, are likely to increase their stake in the company to more than 40 per cent.

Coal India has agreed to a hefty penalty of up to 40 per cent if it fails to supply the committed quantity of the fuel to power firms. This could see the stock come under some pressure today.

Watch out for Bharti Airtel and M-and-M as they will declare their respective June quarter results today.