BSE Sensex to tread water; Reliance Comm eyed

People watch a large screen displaying India's benchmark share index on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai January 24, 2008.

MUMBAI (Reuters) – The BSE Sensex is expected to seesaw early on Friday, with little clear direction from other Asian markets.

Reliance Communications will be on the radar after South Africa's MTN Group said late on Thursday it was not in talks with the No. 2 Indian mobile carrier, following a newspaper report that Reliance was mulling a merger with MTN.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd will be in focus after the top household products maker said late on Thursday its board would consider a share buyback on June 11.

The MSCI's measure of Asian markets other than Japan was trading 0.4 percent lower by 0252 GMT, while Japan's Nikkei was barely changed.

The Nifty India stock futures in Singapore were down 0.1 percent.

On Thursday, the 30-share BSE index ended up 1.7 percent at 17,022.33 points.

STOCKS TO WATCH

* BEML Ltd, after the state-run heavy engineering and defence equipment major said it had signed an initial pact with Karnataka government to build another manufacturing unit in Bangalore.

* GMR Infrastructure, after the company said IDFC Private Equity Fund III and four other investors have agreed to invest 4.65 billion rupees ($99.63 million) in its unit, GMR Energy.

* Adhunik Metaliks Ltd, after the company said it plans to invest 55.7 billion rupees to build a 2.2 million tonnes steel plant in Karnataka, its second facility in the country.

(Reporting by Ami Shah and Rajesh Kurup)