Ukraine spooks global mkts; Nifty may see weak opening

The Indian equity markets are likely to open flat today with a marginal negative bias. SGX Nifty was trading at 6270, thereby suggesting a tad weaker opening today.

Turmoil in Ukraine has spooked the equity markets worldwide with the Wall Street closing mixed. The S&P 500, however, managed a record close on Friday.

European markets closed flat while Asian stocks are under pressure with Japan’s index Nikkei falling 2 percent over Ukraine woes and weak Chinese purchasing managers' index (PMI) data.

Meanwhile, the asset class that will be hogging all the limelight now will be Crude Oil as Russia is the world’s biggest oil producer. Crude oil prices rallied over the rising tension after Russian president Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour.From the currency space, the Japanese yen rose across the board this morning while investors gave risk currencies such as the Australian dollar a wide berth over the Ukraine- Crimea political crisis.

Meanwhile, Gold has gained more than 1 percent on on escalating geopolitical tensions. Bullion gained nearly 7 percent in February, the biggest monthly rise since July.

Back home, the Indian economy continues to stagger with the third quarter GDP coming in at 4.7 percent, setting the stage for the worst year in a decade.

Economists have pegged FY14 growth at sub-5 percent. The mining, manufacturing and agriculture sectors continue to contract.

Corporate action

Maruti Suzuki’s RC Bhargava has said that he sees royalty rates coming down as more products are made. He further added that not all investors are unhappy with the Gujarat arrangement and that they will be replying to LIC's queries shortly.

Meanwhile, auto sales growth was muted in February, however, some signs of green shoots were seen as Maruti and Tata Motors see growth in passenger vehicle segment. TVS Motors continued to report good growth.

A TAQA-led consortium will buy two hydropower units from JP Power. They will spend about USD 616 million on the acqusition. The enterprise value of JP Power plants, including debt, is about 1.6 billion dollars.

And, Rupert Murdoch's Star Group is poised to make the biggest-ever tax settlement in India. The Bombay High Court has given its consent for the group's non-Indian entities to settle over 50 tax cases with the settlement commission, but the taxman may move the battle to the Supreme Court.