Pre-market: Soft opening seen

The markets are expected to open lower today tracking global cues.

Overnight, the US markets slipped on renewed fears of a disorderly default in Greece and concerns that China's slowdown would hit global growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.6 per cent to close at 12,759. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 1.5 per cent to 1,343.

Asian shares fell for a third day in a row on Wednesday as investors grew more risk averse. The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index fell 0.2 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei average opened down 1.3 per cent.

Back home, the Nifty is likely to face resistance around 5,290 – 5,330, while it may seek support around 5,155 – 5,115 levels, analysts say. At 720 am Indian Standard Time, the SGX Nifty was trading at 5,193 levels, down 24 points.

Among individual stocks, Larsen and Toubro and Hexaware will be in focus today on reports that L&T Infotech, the engineering company’s information technology arm, is exploring options of buying out the latter.

Hotel Leelaventures, which had reported a loss for the December quarter, has been referred to the corporate debt restructuring cell to recast debt of 4,000 crore rupees.

Suzlon’s subsidiary has inked a 367 crore rupee agreement with a wind turbine manufacturer for the supply of machined tower flanges, used for wind towers.

Also watch out for Tata Steel that has increased prices of its long products by about 1,000 rupees per metric tonne.