At 8:35AM, the early indicator SGX Nifty was down 3 points at 8,420.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 477.15 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Global Markets

Japanese shares are under pressure on profit-booking ahead of a long weekend shrugging off the boost provided by US markets. Nikkei is trading with a loss of 0.8% on course to snap a run of four weeks of gains.

Chinese shares too remain subdued on profit-taking. Shanghai Composite index is down 0.1% while Hang Seng index is trading flat.

US markets ended at record high levels on fall in jobless claims, factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region growing at its fastest pace in two decades and U.S. home resales jumping to their highest in more than a year in October.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.19% to 17,719, a record close. The S&P 500 gained 0.2% to 2,052.75, its 44th record high this year. The Nasdaq Composite 0.5% to 4,701.87.

Stocks to watch

Public sector banks will be in focus on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday asking the chiefs of these banks to increase the flow of credit to various sectors of the economy without being unduly conservative and firmly deal with the issue of rising non-performing assets (NPAs).

Coal India will be in focus on news that a rift between the five powerful labour unions at Coal India is set to clear the way for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to complete a stake sale in the state company that is critical to hitting budget targets.

NBFCs like, Shriram Transport, HDFC and M&M Financials among others will be in focus after Moody's Investors Service revised outlook of the country's non-financial corporates to stable from negative.

Kotak Mahindra Bank is likely to extend gains. The bank on Thursday announced it was acquiring Bengalaru-headquartered ING Vysya Bank in an all-stock deal. ING shareholders will get 725 Kotak Bank shares for every 1,000 shares they hold.

Tech Mahindra will be in focus after announcing on Thursday the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire US-based Lightbridge Communications Corporation (LCC) for an enterprise value of $240 million, one of its biggest foreign acquisitions to date.

FTIL may come under pressure as its founder and group chief executive officer (CEO) Jignesh Shah stepped down on Thursday from the company’s board of directors.