BOR: Market Outlook: Indian markets may have flat to positive opening today following Asian trading momentum.

Market Outlook: Indian markets may have flat to positive opening today following Asian trading momentum. Some sort of profit booking will be the word for the day. Nifty has support at 5000 and resistances are at 5150-5180. Sensex ended at 17,000 almost near its day's high after a long time thereby indicating that the market is indeed under the control of the bulls & we could see some cooling off in the ongoing rally.

Global Events to watch for today

• Employment Index
• Jobless Claims
• Pending Home Sales Index
• Natural Gas Report

Global indices Update @ 8:

Dow Jones : 10396 (- 09.22)

NASDAQ : 2280 (- 00.11)

Nikkei 225 : 10250 (- 02.96)

Hang seng : 20956 (+79.69)

SGX CNX Nifty : 5092 (+09.50)

INR / 1 USD : 45.90

Global Counter: US markets end flat; dollar slips, commodities gain & Asian markets trading flat. US markets ended flat, off intra-day highs. The Dow snapped a three-day winning streak as Washington ramped up reforms in the Health Care and financial sectors and as the Fed's beige-book report showed the economy is improving but not at a fast enough pace to spur hiring.

Stocks in action for the day : Fame India, SpiceJet, Edserv, Karuturi, TCS, Thermax

Inox may up Fame open offer price: Inox Leisure, India’s third-largest multiplex operator, is likely to increase its open offer price for Fame India to attract minority shareholders and stave off a determined bid by Anil Ambani’s Reliance MediaWorks (RMW) to ensnare its chosen partner.

SpiceJet plans $75-mn preferential issue: Delhi-based domestic air carrier SpiceJet plans to raise around $75 million by issuing preferential shares by September 2010. The airline has appointed financial services firm Edelweiss, along with IDFC-SSKI Securities, as co-fund manager to find a suitable investor. The low-cost airline needs money to start international operations and expand its fleet. SpiceJet is planning to fly to neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives. It is also expanding its network in the domestic market by adding new stations. It currently operates with a fleet of about 20 Boeing 737 jets and commands a share of 12.4% in the domestic market.

Edserv to raise upto Rs 130 cr thru QIP: The Board of EdServ on Wednesday approved the proposal to raise up to Rs.130 crore by way of issue of equity shares through the QIP (qualified institutional placement) route, at a price (including the premium) to be fixed in consultation with the lead managers.

Airlines pitch for rollback of service tax: The finance minister’s move to levy service tax on air tickets will force airlines to increase fares, said Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya on Wednesday. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed to levy a 10% service tax on all domestic and international air tickets in the Budget 2010-11. The service tax and increased operating cost would inevitably result into hike in fares. The industry needs relief, not the additional taxes

Karuturi to raise Rs 7 bn through FCCBs, debt Karuturi Global, better know as India`s largest rose exporter, is understood to have finalised its plans to raise USD150 million (close to Rs 6.9 billion) equally between FCCBs (Foreign Currency Covertible Bonds) and debt. The company is raising USD 50 million through FCCBs with a greenshoe option of USD 25 million. In addition to this, an additional USD 75 million is expected to be tied in as debt at Libor plus 400 points. While the FCCBs are expected to be in place by month-end, the debt is expected to be in place in the next two months. The company is pressing ahead with its fund-raising plans to expand its agriculture export business from its fields in Ethiopia and this vertical may soon overtake the revenues from rose exports in the next couple of years.

Titan Industries to invest Rs 100 mn in new plant Titan Industries is investing Rs 100 million in setting up a new plant in Pantnagar for manufacturing 3 million watches per annum. Currently the company has a plant in Hosur where it manufactures around 11 million watches. It also has assembly units in Baddi, Dehradun, Roorkee, among other locations.

Pfizer to bid up to USD 4.08 bn for Ratiopharm Pfizer Inc, the world`s biggest drug maker, is bidding as much as 3 billion euros (USD 4.08 billion) for German generic-drug maker Ratiopharm GmbH, said two people with knowledge of the talks. Pfizer could make a presentation to Ratiopharm`s management as early as this week to support its bid.

Thermax sees openings in renewable energy Pune-based energy and environment solutions` provider Thermax is gearing up to tap incentives offered in the Union Budget for renewable energy, water and wastewater treatment. The company is planning strong foray into solar, biomass and geothermal sources of energy.

TCS bags multi-year pension project deal from UK govt India`s largest software vendor TCS has bagged a multi-year deal from the British government to administer the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST). Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA), a non-departmental public body (NDPB), will sign a contract with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) later this month which will be divided into two stages and running into 10 years, PADA said in a statement. Neither TCS nor PADA gave any financial details of the deal.