Pre-market: Cautious opening on cards

The markets are likely to open on a cautious note ahead of the Railway Budget which is to be announced today. Inflation numbers for the month of February will also keep gains in check.

The dollar jumped against the euro and the yen on Tuesday after comments by the Federal Reserve drove down expectations that it would further ease monetary policy, and US stocks notched multi-year highs on optimism on the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.7 per cent, to 13,178. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.8 per cent to 1,396.

Asian shares rose on Wednesday with The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index carrying the momentum from overnight and rose 0.3 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei average opened up 1.7 per cent.

Back home, the Nifty is likely to face resistance around 5,445-5,460, and on the downside it can seek support around 5,410-5,400, technical analysts say. At 730am Indian Standard Time, the SGX Nifty was trading at 5,544 levels, up 72 points.

Among individual stocks, keep a tab on railway related stocks such as Kalindee Rail, Texmaco, Titagarh Wagons and Kernex Microsystems.

NMDC is eyeing to acquire three more overseas properties by June-July, reports suggest.

IT services provider Subex has bagged 5 crore rupee contract from Idea Cellular for providing fraud management solution through managed services.

In a step towards complying with the new shareholding norms on promoter holdings, the Azim Premji Foundation said it would sell 35 million shares of Wipro through an auction route, opening on Wednesday.