The Indian market is seen opening lower on Thursday, after three bomb blasts hit Mumbai last night, killing at least 21 people and injuring 113 in a grim reminder of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack. The terror attack was the 13th attack on the city in 20 years.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the blasts and appealed for calm. "We infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said, citing the close timing of the blasts.
That said, investors keenly await June inflation data due around noon today for clues on the ongoing pace of the tightening cycle. Weekly food and fuel inflation data also due today could offer further clues about RBI' s monetary policy in the near future.
Meanwhile, after Infosys' muted results, India's largest software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services is due to announce its first-quarter earnings today.
The benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty rose about a percent each on Wednesday, snapping three days of losses, as investors bought battered bluechip stocks amid firm global cues. According to provisional data released by BSE, foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs.315.95 crore on a net basis yesterday, while domestic financial institutions sold shares to the extent of Rs.368 crore.
Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower this morning and the Dow futures are declining, after Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece's credit rating deeper into junk status and Moody's Investors Service warned of a possible downgrade of U.S. government debt.
U.S. stocks managed to close in positive territory on Wednesday even as buying interest waned over the course of the day's trading after showing a strong upward move in morning trading. The Dow closed 0.4 percent higher, the Nasdaq rose by half a percent and the S&P 500 edged up 0.3 percent.
U.S. crude futures for August delivery rose $0.62 to settle above $98 a barrel on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted at more stimulus if the economy weakens. Oil prices were also buoyed by data showing a larger-than-expected drop in crude stocks.
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