The Indian market is likely to witness a flat-to-positive opening on the back of supportive global cues. The US markets ended with marginal gains overnight while the Asian pack was mostly in the green, guided by stronger-than-expected economic growth for the September quarter. The SGX Nifty was up 18 points to 5,943 over its previous close of 5,925.

The government is set to release the weekly food inflation numbers around noon today. Besides, oil stocks will be in focus as the government is set to hike auto fuel prices next week.

The market opened in negative terrain on Wednesday, tracking its Asian peers which were trading mixed. Profit-taking, along with fears of a hike in fuel prices due to a rise in global crude prices, weighed on the sentiments. The slide continued as the day progressed, and the indices touched the day's lows amid range-bound trade in the post-noon session. The broader indices continued to languish and ended sharply lower. A news report that the Intelligence Bureau is looking at likely price-rigging in select second-rung stocks is said to have caused the decline in the market today. However, the key indices pared some losses, but ended in the red, down over 1% each. The Sensex ended at 19,696.48, down 238.16 points (1.19%). The Nifty settled 72.85 points (1.22%) lower at 5,903.70.

Wall Street settled with marginal gains on Wednesday led by financial and technology stocks. Banking stocks ended higher on hopes of higher profits going forward. Positive outlook from technology majors Texas Instruments Inc and Nouvellus Systems Inc boosted the sector. Besides, a strengthening dollar kept a tab on commodity prices.

The Dow rose 13.32 points (0.12%) to 11,372.48. The S&P 500 added 4.53 points (0.37%) to 1,228.28. The Nasdaq advanced 10.67 points (0.41%) to 2,609.16.

Asian markets were mostly higher in early trade on Thursday on positive economic data emanating from the region and support from its US peers, which ended with modest gains overnight. Japanese gross domestic product grew at an annualized 4.5% in the three months ended September, faster than the 3.9% reported last month and higher than analysts’ estimates. The Bank of Korea left the seven-day repurchase rate at 2.5%, the central bank in Seoul today.

The Hang Seng was 0.57% higher, the KLSE Composite gained 0.15%, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.21%, the Straits Times was up 0.39%, the Seoul Composite surged 0.72% and the Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.84%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite shed 0.02% and the Jakarta Composite lost 0.05% in early trade. The SGX Nifty was up 18 points to 5,943 over its previous close of 5,925.

The Supreme Court has favoured widening of the ambit of the ongoing probe into the second generation (2G) spectrum case, saying it should also include the period since 2001 when first-come-first-served was the norm for spectrum allocation.

The judges’ remarks assume importance as the former telecom minister, A Raja, has maintained that he was treading on the footsteps of his predecessors and was following the 2001 policy.