Sensex, Nifty to open in green; ONGC, Bharat Forge, Adani Power, Ashok Leyland shares in focus

The domestic benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are set to open higher on Tuesday, following a rebound in Asian and European peers after the recent sell-off. The U.S. markets were closed for a holiday on Monday. The bullish trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-up opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 46 points, or 0.3%, higher at 15,408 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:05 AM.

Snapping a six-session losing streak, the Indian share market closed higher in choppy trade on Monday, tracking positive cues from European peers. In the see-saw trade, the BSE Sensex rose 237 points higher at 51,598, and the NSE Nifty settled at 15,350, up 57 points. The top performers in the BSE Sensex pack were Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), HDFC, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, and HDFC Bank. Underperforming the benchmark indices, the broader market, the BSE smallcap and midcap indices ended lower, falling 2.95% and 1.39%, respectively. On the sectoral front, metal was the worst performer, followed by oil and gas, energy, basic materials, and capital goods.

Stocks to watch

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC): Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has given additional charge of the post of chairman and managing director to Alka Mittal for 2 months.

Adani Power: The Adani Group firm has completed the acquisition of 100% stake in Support Properties (SPPL) and Eternus Real Estate (EREPL) from their respective shareholders for about ₹609 crore.

Ashok Leyland: The Hinduja Group’s company has strengthened its CNG-operated Intermediate Commercial Vehicle (ICV) portfolio with the launch of its ecomet STAR 1115 truck.

Bharat Forge: In a bid to consolidate its electric vehicles business, the company has approved the transfer of its stake in Refu Drive GmbH (Refu), joint venture (JV) company, to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kalyani Powertrain (KPL).

Suven Life Sciences: The pharma company in an exchange filing said that its board will meet on June 24 to consider raising funds through the issue of shares on a rights basis to existing shareholders of the company.

HUDCO: Global rating firm Fitch upgraded the outlook of Housing and Urban Development Corporation to 'stable' with 'BBB-' rating.

Engineers India: The board of the company has appointed Sanjay Jindal, director (finance), as chief financial officer of the company in place of Vartika Shukla, CMD and additional charge director (technical).

Fineotex Chemical: The board of the company will meet on June 24 to consider raising of funds by issue of shares, subject to shareholders and other regulatory approvals.

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

Wall Street was closed for the Juneteenth public holiday,

Asian stocks rebound

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were trading higher in opening deals on Tuesday, following strong cues from European markets which rebounded after the recent sell-off. Markets in the U.S. were closed for the Juneteenth public holiday.

Regional heavyweight Japan’s Nikkei 225 was the best performer in the regional market with a 1.7% gain. South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.46%, the Straits Times Index in Singapore added 0.8% and Australia’s ASX 200 rallied 1.1%.

In a similar trend, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 1.3%, Taiwan Weighted jumped 1.1%, and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite rose 0.5%.

In mainland China, shares were trading on a mixed note, with Shenzhen Component falling by 0.45% and the Shanghai Composite rising by 0.4%.

Crude prices up 2%

The price of Brent and U.S. crude rose over 2% in early trade on Tuesday over tight supply and rising fuel demand. The oil price has fallen around 5% to $115 per barrel from its high of $123 per barrel amid concerns that the U.S. economy may enter recession due to aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Adding to it, the fresh Covid wave in China raised concerns about the demand outlook.

In Asian trading hours, the Brent oil for July delivery was trading 1.3% higher at $115.6 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude July futures were quoting at $110.4 a barrel, up 2.2%.

FIIs continue selling spree

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree in the Indian equity market on June 20, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to support the market. As per the exchange data, FIIs net sold shares worth ₹1,217.12 crore, which was compensated by ₹2,093.39 crore equity purchase by the DIIs.