Global cues mixed; will RBI give Nifty a reason to cheer?

The Indian equity market is expected to open in the green today with the SGX Nifty trading at 8895, up 33.50 points at 7:20am.

The market saw some volatile action on Monday with the 30-share BSE Sensex falling more than 200 points intraday, before showing smart recovery to end at 29122.27, down 60.68 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 11.50 points to 8797.40.

Global cues, meanwhile, are positive with the US markets rallying with the Dow rising 200 points on encouraging news from the eurozone and stronger oil prices.

Major European indices closed higher after a volatile day of trading. Greek stocks rallied upto 5 percent , as its new left-wing government began on to persuade its eurozone partners to create a new debt agreement with the country.

And despite a positive handover from the US and European markets, Asian markets are trading with a mild negative bias.Back home, 90 percent of respondents in a CNBC-TV18 credit policy poll do not expect a rate cut from the RBI today. However, a majority are betting on further easing of rates after the union budget.

India's infrastructure sector is struggling with the core sector growth slowing to 2.4 percent in December versus 6.7 in November. Electricity, cement and coal see the biggest decline in performance during the month.

And in key earnings today Punjab National Bank (PNB) will report its third quarter numbers today. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profits may rise 23 percent to Rs 930 crore. Net Interest Income (NII) growth will be similar to last quarter at 4 percent. Volatility in asset quality could continue. Furthermore, from cement space, ACC could see an over 30 percent decline in profits.

From the auto space, Hero Moto Corp is expected to report a weak performance this quarter. Its revenues may decline by over 1 percent. The margins, however, may rise by 60 bps year-on-year (YoY).