Sensex, Nifty to open higher; Infosys, HCL Tech, Vedanta, UPL, NMDC shares eyed

Indian equity benchmarks are set to open higher on Thursday, boosted by gains in Asian peers and strong finish at Wall Street overnight, despite rise in commodity prices. The global equities were lifted after the U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell indicated that rate hike would be less than some investors had feared. The positive trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-up opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 46 points, or 0.28%, higher at 16,663 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:10 AM.

On Wednesday, the domestic benchmarks closed lower as a full-fledged war between Russian and Ukraine and record rally in crude prices rattled global equities. The BSE Sensex dropped over 1,200 points intraday but reversed some of the losses to close 778 points, or 1.38%, lower at 55,469. In a similar trend, the Nifty50 index rebounded from its intraday low of 16,479 to settle at 16,606, down 188 points or 1.12%. The market witnessed broad-based selling with most of the sectoral indices ending lower. The rate sensitive auto and bank stocks declined the most, while metal and power sectors were among best performers. The top losers on the Sensex pack were Maruti Suzuki India, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, and Housing Development Finance Corporation.

Stocks to focus

Infosys: The IT major said in a release that its flagship digital reskilling program, Springboard, continues to expand its reach to learners across India by growing its thriving community to over 1.2 million users in 100 days. Infosys Springboard has partnered with over 700+ educational institutions and education departments of the State Governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh to realize this vision.

UPL: The chemical company’s board has proposed a share buyback plan at ₹875 per share for an aggregate amount of not exceeding ₹1,100 crore. This amounts to 14.56% and 5.71% of its total paid-up share capital and free reserves as on 31st March, 2021.

Vedanta: Billionaire Anil Agarwal-led mining company has declared an interim dividend of ₹13 per equity share. This was the third interim dividend for the financial year 2021-22.

NMDC: The state-owned miner posted a 26% rise in its iron ore output to 37.18 million tonnes (MT) during the April-February period of 2021-22. The company had produced 29.52 MT of iron ore during the same period last year.

HCL Tech: The largecap IT major has launched two new 5G applications to help mobile network operators optimise customer experience and reduce energy consumption across their 4G and 5G infrastructure.

Religare Enterprises: The company in an exchange filing said it has become debt-free and plans to enter several new segments, such as asset reconstruction, alternate investment funds, insurance broking and digital wealth management.

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

Wall Street rebound on Fed’s assurance

In the overnight trade, all the three major U.S. indices closed higher as easing rate hike fears helped calm investors' nerves which were spooked by Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in testimony to the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, signaled that the central bank would raise interest rates this month, albeit less than some investors had feared. Reacting to Powell’s comment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.79%, the S&P 500 gained 1.86%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended 1.62% higher.

Asian stocks follow Wall Street higher

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were flashing in green in early trade, tracking a strong finish at Wall Street overnight after the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the U.S. central bank would begin raising rates this month, but at a slower pace.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong climbed 0.5%. South Korea’s KOSPI was the best performer in the region with a 1.34% gain, while the Straits Times Index in Singapore added 0.7%.

In a similar trend, Australia’s ASX 200 index rose 0.7% and Taiwan Weighted index added 0.36%.

In mainland China, the Shenzhen component fell 0.66%, while the Shanghai composite surged 0.28% in early deals.

Brent crude crosses $115 as Ukraine crisis raises supply concerns

The oil prices continued uptrend on Thursday, with Brent crude crossing $115 a barrel to hit an eight-year high after Western sanctions impacted the transport of commodities exported by Russia. Even the International Energy Agency (IEA) move to release 60 million barrels of crude from their reserves failed to ease traders’ concerns about supply disruptions caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

During the early Asian trading hours on Thursday, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 2.26% to $113.1 a barrel, while the Brent oil futures rose 2.8% to $116.1 per barrel.

In the overnight trade, the U.S. oil benchmark, WTI spiked as much as 11.5% to hit a high of $106.78, before ending the session at $103.41, up 8.03%. Similarly, Brent crude touched a high of $107.57 per barrel, before settling with a 7.15% gain at $104.97.

FIIs remain net sellers, DIIs net buyers

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the Indian equity market on March 2, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) emerged as net buyers. As per the data available on the NSE, FIIs sold shares worth ₹4,338.9 crore, while DIIs net purchased shares worth ₹3,061.7 crore.