Pre-market: Markets likely to open on a cautious note

The Indian markets are likely to open on a cautious note today in the absence of cues from the Asian markets. Traders will also be wary of taking big positions ahead of RBI’s Monetary Policy review tomorrow.

Most of the Asian stock markets including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are closed on Monday for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Back home, the combined market capitalisation of seven of the country's top-10 most-valued companies advanced by 57,340 crore last week, with energy majors RIL and ONGC the biggest gainers.

Analysts suggest given the positive momentum, the Nifty could very well rally to test its long-term moving average at 5,220. At 720 a-m Indian Standard Time, the SGX Nifty was trading at 5,070 levels, up 11 points.

Among individual stocks, the markets will react to RIL’s December quarter results and the 10,000 crore buyback proposal announced post market hours on Friday.

Godrej Consumer Products cold could also react to a 40.34 per cent rise in net profit for the December quarter. Besides this, the company announced that Singapore-based Temasek plans to invest 685 crore in the company.

Walt Disney may succeed in its bid to delist shares of U-T-V Software from Indian bourses, reports suggest, but may have to pay 10 per cent more than what it was willing to offer to public shareholders. This could bring the stock back in limelight today.

Jet Airways has posted a net loss of 101 crore for the third quarter ended December 2011. The stock may remain under pressure due to this.

Also keep a tab on Larsen and Toubro, Maruti, Idea Cellular and Gail as they announce their respective December quarter results today.