Trading in Singapore Nifty futures indicate a higher opening on Friday following the previous session's selloff. Investors may draw some comfort from provisional data, which showed that FIIs remained net buyers in Indian equities, purchasing shares worth Rs. 316.23 crore yesterday.
Meanwhile, RBI Governor D. Subbarao went against the views of a majority of external members of the technical advisory committee (TAC) when he cut the repo rate by 25 basis points earlier this month, minutes of the TAC meeting held before the policy meet on May 3 showed.
A global rout amid expectations that the Federal Reserve may reverse its ultra-easy monetary policy earlier than expected and SBI's disappointing Q4 results dragged benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty down about 2 percent each on Thursday.
The rupee recovered from a more than 8-1/2 month low to end down 10 paise at 55.59 against the dollar after India's Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan said the government would look into raising FII investment limits in government and corporate debt when the available limits are exhausted.
In corporate news, former Ranbaxy Laboratories chairman Malvinder Singh rubbished allegations made by Daiichi Sankyo, saying the Japanese drug major was leveling baseless charges against him.
CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta has described the oil ministry's move to raise natural gas price as a "gigantic scam" that would benefit the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries.
JSW Steel reported a sharp 62 percent decline in its fourth-quarter consolidated net profit on account of lower sales, higher interest and depreciation charges.
Asian Markets
Asian stocks are trading mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei index rallying 2.7 percent as the yen weakened against the dollar and euro, giving investors a reason to buy following a 7.3 percent plunge in the previous session.
The markets in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan are posting modest gains after U.S. stocks substantially pared intraday losses overnight. Commodities are edging lower on worries about Chinese growth.
Meanwhile, seeking to soothe market fears, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that the Fed is in no hurry to start winding down its bond-buying program. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams also emphasized that policymakers have flexibility to increase the pace of bond buying should the economy weaken again.
U.S. And European Markets
U.S. stocks ended off their day's lows overnight, with an upbeat outlook from HP, encouraging housing data as well as a bigger than expected drop in initial jobless claims last week pointing to resilience in the labor market helping to limit the downside. The Dow and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped about 0.1 percent each, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent.
European stocks tumbled on Thursday, with weaker than expected manufacturing data from China and Bernanke's comments on withdrawing some of the liquidity in the system sparking the sell-off. Benchmark indexes in Germany, France and the U.K. fell about 2 percent each, while the SMI of Switzerland lost 2.8 percent.
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