Indian Shares Seen Higher On Asian Cues

(RTTNews) - The Indian markets may follow Asian stocks higher on Thursday as better-than-estimated U.S. jobs data bolstered optimism the recovery was gaining traction.

However, concerns about political instability in Portugal deepened, raising fears of a fresh EU turmoil. In Egypt, the head of armed forces announced that Islamist President Mohamed Morsi had been ousted, paving the way for a political transition with the support of a wide range of political, religious and youth leaders.

Oil prices are hovering near a nine-month high and gold prices are marginally higher ahead of the European Central Bank meeting later in the day and the U.S. non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.

Indian shares joined a sell-off across Asia and Europe on Wednesday as upbeat U.S. data lent support to the views that the days of easy money from the Federal Reserve may be over. Portugal's political turmoil, geopolitical tensions and weak Chinese data also left investors rattled, sending the Sensex and the Nifty index tumbling about 1.5 percent each.

According to provisional data, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth a net Rs.705.06 crore yesterday, while domestic financial institutions bought shares to the extent of Rs. 252.88 crore.

In corporate news, Larsen & Toubro has fixed July 13 as record date for a 1:2 bonus issue.

Mahindra & Mahindra announced that it has raised Rs. 500 crore through issue of non-convertible debentures on a private placement basis.

Finance minister P Chidambaram has urged public sector banks to cut their minimum lending rates to boost credit growth.

Deepak Fertilizers & Petrochemicals has bought a 24.5 percent stake in Vijay Mallya's Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers for Rs 179 crore.

U.S. And European Markets

U.S. stocks rose modestly overnight as encouraging reports on jobless claims and private-sector job growth outweighed weak Chinese data and worrying developments elsewhere in Portugal and Egypt. The U.S. service sector continued to expand in June, although the pace of growth unexpectedly slowed compared to the previous month, a report from the Institute for Supply Management showed. The Dow rose 0.4 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 inched up 0.1 percent.

European stocks ended Wednesday's session off their day's lows, thanks to the positive economic data out of the U.S. Portugal's borrowing costs shot up amid fears of a growing political crisis in the country and the situation in Egypt remained fluid, keeping investors nervous. Key benchmark indexes in Germany, France and the U.K. fell over a percent each.