• The market may open on a positive note on firm Asian stocks. But volumes may remain low as traders may refrain from building large positions ahead of a long weekend. The stock market remains closed on Friday, 12 February 2010, on account of Mahashivratri. The government will today unveil data on some wholesale price indices for the year through 30 January 2010 viz. the food price index, the primary articles index and the fuel price index.

• Asian stocks rose on Thursday on hopes European Union leaders will today, 11 February 2010, lay the groundwork for a financial rescue of Greece.

• Wall Street ended in the negative zone but off intra-day lows on Wednesday, 10 February 2010. Traders mulled a possible bailout of Greece. Reports suggest that France and Germany are expected to present a bailout plan at an EU summit today. Speculation about the Federal Reserve’s exit strategy after comments from Fed Chief Ben Bernanke also weighed on the market.

• Closer home, government’s gross market borrowing in the fiscal year 2010/11 may reportedly be within the current year’s target, allaying market fears of higher borrowing. The government has completed record gross borrowing of Rs 451000 crore ($97 billion) for the current fiscal year to fund a 16-year high fiscal deficit of 6.8 % of gross domestic product (GDP). Earlier this month, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said the government’s gross market borrowing in the fiscal year to end-March 2011 might be slightly higher than the current fiscal year because of the redemptions. The government has said it hopes to return to the path of fiscal consolidation and intends to bring down the deficit to 5.5 percent of the GDP.

• The economy will grow faster in 2009/10 than the government has forecast, the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday, adding to expectations that a strong recovery would lead to tighter fiscal and monetary policy.

• As per provisional figures on NSE, foreign funds sold shares worth Rs 208.62 crore and domestic funds bought shares worth Rs 459.11 crore on Wednesday.