The Indian market is seen opening higher on Thursday, in tandem with gains on Wall Street overnight and in Asia this morning after Greek lawmakers passed an austerity bill needed to secure financial aid from the European Union, easing concerns over a possible Greek debt default.
However, with oil trading near a one-week high in New York, trading may remain choppy amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Crude futures rallied for the third day to end up by about 2 percent at $94.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange overnight, buoyed by U.S Energy Information Administration data showing a sharp fall in crude and gasoline stocks.
Rollover of positions on account of the expiry of near-month derivative contracts and weekly food and fuel inflation data that will be out around noon may also influence market direction. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs.669.35 crore on a net basis Wednesday, while domestic financial institutions sold shares to the extent of Rs.240.59 crore, provisional data released by BSE shows.
The benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty extended their recent gains to end about a percent each on Wednesday, as firm global cues and renewed foreign institutional interest in bluechip stocks supported sentiment.
U.S. stocks saw further upside overnight on news that the Greek parliament voted 155 to 138 in favor of the 28 billion euro package of spending cuts and tax increases. The approval of the five-year austerity package reduces the potential risks of a debt default by Greece in the short run and opens the door to a new bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Additional buying interest was generated by the release of a report from the National Association of Realtors showing a notable rebound in U.S. pending home sales in the month of May. The Dow rose 0.6 percent, the Nasdaq gained 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 moved up 0.8 percent.
Across Asia, China's Shanghai is currently up 1.3 percent, Australia's All Ordinaries is rising 1.2 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng is gaining 1.6 percent and South Korea's Kospi is posting a modest 0.3 percent gain, while the markets in Japan and Malaysia are drifting down marginally.
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