Sensex, Nifty to open higher; Bajaj Finance, Zee Learn, Bank of India, Eveready shares in focus

Indian benchmark indices, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are poised to open higher on Tuesday, tracking firm cues from global equities. The positive trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-up opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 122 points, or 0.72%, higher at 17,117 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 7:55 AM. Investors will also react to corporate earnings reports with some major companies such as Bajaj Finance, HDFC Life Insurance Company, NELCO Nippon Life India Asset Management, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Mahindra Logistics set to release their March quarter results today.

On Monday, the domestic bourses closed lower for the second straight session, weighed down by weak global cues and subdued corporate earnings. The BSE Sensex ended 617 points, or 1.08%, lower at 56,580, after falling as much as 1.46% during the session. Similarly, the NSE Nifty dived 218 points, or 1.27%, to 16,954. In the last two sessions, the BSE Sensex plunged 1,500 points and the Nifty50 tumbled 503 points, eroding investors’ wealth worth over ₹6.47 lakh crore. On Monday, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Titan, Reliance Industries, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, and Sun Pharma were among the major losers in the Sensex pack. Among sectors, all indices, barring banks, ended in red, led by metal, realty, energy, telecom, oil and gas, and basic materials.

Stocks to focus:

Bank of India: The PSU lender will raise up to ₹2,500 crore by issuing fresh equity shares in order to comply with the minimum public shareholding requirement of 25%.

Zee Learn: YES Bank has filed a plea for insolvency proceedings against Zee Learn in default of a financial facility of ₹468 crore.

FMCG companies: Shares of Adani Wilmar, HUL, Marico, Ruchi Soya will be in focus as Indonesia, the world's top palm oil producer, has announced export ban on palm oil from April 28, 2022.

Cyient: The IT company will acquire global plant and product engineering services company Citec for about ₹800 crore to strengthen its business offerings.

Bank of Maharashtra: The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a monetary penalty of ₹1.12 crore on the state-run bank for non-compliance of guidelines issued under the Know Your Customer (KYC) directions.

Future Group companies: Creditors of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group are reportedly planning to bring all group companies under the bankruptcy process after Reliance Industries (RIL) called-off the ₹24,713 crore deals with Future Retail. The lenders, including Bank of India, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, and IDBI Bank, have exposure to Future Consumer, Future Retail, and Future Enterprises.

Eveready Industries: The battery maker saw its consolidated net loss narrowing to ₹38.41 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2022, as against net loss of ₹442.53 crore in the January-March period a year ago. Its revenue from operations rose 17.82% YoY to ₹294.33 crore during the quarter under review.

Mahindra CIE Automotive: Auto component firm on Monday reported a consolidated net profit of ₹161.42 crore for the first quarter ended March 2022, from ₹10.09 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations rose to ₹2,588.36 crore for the first quarter as compared with ₹2,189.4 crore in the January-March period of last year.

Century Textiles & Industries: The textile company, a part of the Aditya Birla group, has reported a ₹84 crore net income in the March quarter, making a turnaround from a ₹5 crore net loss in the year-ago period as its sales jumped 45% to ₹1,188 crore.

Here are the key things investors should know before the market opens today:

Wall Street gets Twitter boost

In the overnight trade, all three major U.S. indices closed higher in choppy trade on Monday after Twitter accepted billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover proposal. The world’s richest man offered to buy the micro-blogging site at $54.20 per share in cash for $44 billion, which propelled Twitter shares over 5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.7% higher, while the S&P 500 rose 0.57%. In a similar trend, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 1.29%.

Asian stocks mixed in early trade

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region traded mixed in early trade on Tuesday, undermining positive finish at Wall Street overnight. The Covid-19 situation in China and persistent concerns about hawkish policy stance by the U.S. Federal Reserve kept investors on edge.

Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 rose 0.57%, South Korea’s KOSPI surged 0.64%, and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rallied 1%.

In mainland China, the Shenzhen Component and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively, in early trade.

Bucking the trend, the Straits Times Index in Singapore fell 0.2%, Taiwan’s Weighted index fell 0.1%, and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite slipped 0.5%.

Oil prices rebound after sharp drop overnight

The price of Brent and U.S. crude oil rebounded in early trade on Tuesday after falling around 4% overnight on worries about Covid-19 lockdowns in China, which dented demand prospects. In Asian trading hours on Tuesday, the Brent oil for July delivery was up 1.2% at $103.41 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 1.1% to $99.66 a barrel.

On Monday, Brent crude futures dropped 4.1% to close at $102.32 a barrel, while U.S. WTI contracts dropped 3.5% to $98.54 per barrel.

Meanwhile, petrol and diesel prices remained steady for the 20th day on Tuesday, after several hikes in more than one month. The domestic oil companies have raised fuel rates by ₹10 per litre since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22, when the results of five Assembly polls were announced.

FIIs remain net sellers, DIIs net buyers

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the Indian equity market on April 25, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to support the market. As per the exchange data, FIIs sold shares worth ₹3,302.85 crore, while DIIs net purchased shares worth ₹1,870.45 crore.

Corporate earnings

The major companies that are slated to release their earnings numbers today include Bajaj Finance, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, KPIT Technologies, HDFC Life Insurance Company, Macrotech Developers, Mahindra Logistics, NELCO, and Nippon Life India Asset Management. Among others, Atul, AU Small Finance Bank, Gateway Distriparks, IIFL Securities, Sanofi India, Schaeffler India, Som Distilleries & Breweries, Tata Coffee, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), United Breweries, UTI Asset Management Company, VST Industries, D-Link (India), International Travel House, Gujarat Hotels, Jindal Hotels, JK Agri Genetics, will also unveil their March quarter results on April 26.