Sensex, Nifty to open higher; UltraTech Cement, SBI, YES Bank, ONGC, Aether Ind shares eyed

The equity benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are set to open higher on Friday, following firm cues from Asian peers and strong finish on Wall Street overnight. The positive trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a solid opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 197 points, or 1.2%, higher at 16,807 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:10 AM. Among individual stocks, investors will keep a close eye on the listing of speciality chemical manufacturer Aether Industries, which raised ₹800 crore via IPO.

On Thursday, the domestic bourses ended higher, snapping a two-session losing streak, supported by rally in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, TCS, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, and ease in crude prices. However, weak rupee and continued foreign fund outflows limited the upmove. The BSE Sensex ended 437 points, or 0.79%, to finish at 55,818, and the NSE Nifty rose 105 points, or 0.64%, to 16,628. Reliance Industries topped the gainer's chart by rising 3.51%, followed by Bajaj Finserv, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, TCS, Infosys, Asian Paints, and Tata Steel. Among BSE sectoral indices, the energy sector was the best performer, while oil and gas, IT, Teck, and utilities ended with decent gains.

Stocks to watch

UltraTech Cement: The board of directors of Aditya Birla Group company has approved a capex of ₹12,886 crore towards increasing capacity by 22.6 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) with a mix of brown field and green field expansion.

State Bank of India (SBI): The country’s largest lender has promoted seven chief general managers (CGMs) as deputy managing directors. The state-owned bank has also elevated 29 general managers as CGMs.

YES Bank: The private sector lender plans to buy back overseas bonds worth up to $200 million and issue them under the medium term note programme.

Hindalco Industries: The company in an exchange filing said it has completed the divestment process for Hindalco Do Brazil Industria Comercia de Alumina LTDA.

Muthoot Finance: The company has entered into a pact with Airtel Payments Bank to offer gold loans through the Airtel Thanks app. As per the deal, there will be no-processing charge on the loan and Muthoot Finance will provide up to 75% of the pledged gold value as a loan.

Coal India: The country’s largest coal miner reportedly plans to issue a short-term and a medium-term tender next week to import coal for utilities. Recently, the central government directed the coal miner to import coal as shortages were estimated due to expectations of higher power demand.

ITC: ITC Infotech, the company owned by the FMCG major, has paid an amount of $33 million (around ₹256 crore) to PTC as part of an agreement to acquire a stake in the American company's product lifecycle management implementation services.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC): The oil and gas major has applied for the petroleum exploration license before the Bihar government, citing possibility of crude oil fields in Buxar and Samastipur districts.

GR Infraprojects: The company has inked a concession pact with National Highways Authority of India for a ₹1,577 crore road project.

MTAR Technologies: The defence company has signed a deal to acquire a 100% stake in GEE PEE Aerospace & Defence for ₹8.82 crore.

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

Wall Street ends sharply higher

On Thursday, all three major U.S. indices settled with solid gains in a choppy session, driven by megacap growth stocks such as Tesla, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Amazon, Apple, and others. The market witnessed a surge in buying ahead of the government's nonfarm payrolls data slated to be released on Friday, which will indicate the health of the U.S. economy and also determine how aggressively the Fed may continue to raise interest rates. In the overnight trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.33% higher, the S&P 500 added 1.84%, and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 2.69%.

Asian stocks follow Wall Street higher

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were trading higher in early deals on Friday, following strong cues from Wall Street. The regional market saw thin trading as Chinese stock and bond markets were closed for the Dragon Boat Festival today. Markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan were also shut.

Regional heavyweight Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.1%, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.3%, and the Straits Times Index in Singapore added 0.2%. Similarly, Australia’s ASX 200 gained 0.8% and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite was up 0.4%.

Crude prices steady

The price of Brent and U.S. crude was steady on Friday amid doubts that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and associated allied producers would increase their production enough to fill the supply gap created by the ban on Russian oil imports. In a meeting on Thursday, OPEC+ members agreed to boost output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July and August, as compared to 432,000 bpd proposed earlier, which is unlikely to ease supply concerns.

In Asian trading hours, the Brent oil for July delivery was trading flat at $117.8 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude July futures dipped 0.1% to $116.8 a barrel.

FIIs remain net sellers, DIIs net buyers

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree in the Indian equity market on June 2, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to support the market. As per the exchange data, FIIs net sold shares worth ₹451.82 crore, while DIIs net purchased shares worth ₹130.63 crore.