Markets seen opening on cautious note, inflation eyed

The Indian markets are expected to open on a cautious note on the back of weak global cues and the monthly inflation data expected later in the day.

In other developments across the globe, ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the long-term credit rating of Spain by one notch on Friday, knocking the euro down by a third of US cent as it followed hard on the heels of a similar downgrade by Fitch last week.

S&P cited Spain's high unemployment, tightening credit and high level of private-sector debt among the reasons for the downgrade of the nation's creditworthiness to AA- from AA.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei average opened down 0.46 per cent at 8,782.91 on Friday, while the broader Topix shed 0.79 per cent to 752.81. Back home, technical analysts suggest that the support for the Nifty is at 5,030, while the 50-share index is likely to face resistance at 5,174 levels. At 830 am Indian Standard Time, the SGX Nifty was trading flat at 5,067, down a negligible 2 points.

Among individual stocks, UltraTech Cement could see some action today on reports that Kumar Mangalam Birla seems to have finally agreed to go ahead with the long-awaited merger of the cement business of Century Textiles with UltraTech.

Public sector undertakings are likely to be in limelight today after the government unveiled a new policy which accords greater autonomy to profit-making P-S-U-s in acquiring raw material assets abroad, and said it will also consider setting up a sovereign wealth fund.

Maruti Suzuki stock is likely to drift lower as the company said it would shut its main plant at Gurgaon for two days starting today due to component supply constraints.

Also watch out for Gateway Distriparks and Balaji Tele as these companies will announce their September 2011 quarter results later in the day.