Sensex, Nifty to open in red; HCL Tech, Paytm, L&T, Wipro, Eureka Forbes, BoB shares eyed

The Indian equity benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are poised to fall in opening trade on Tuesday, extending their previous session losses, following weak cues from Asian peers and a negative finish on Wall Street overnight. The global equities dropped as investors turned cautious ahead of U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday, and the fresh Covid-19 outbreak in China which could impact global economic growth. The weak trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-down opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 122 points, or 0.75%, lower at 16,076 levels on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:00 AM. On the domestic front, retail inflation and industrial output numbers will be released today, which could set tone for the market. Investors will also track first quarter earnings reports from IT major HCL Technologies, while rupee-dollar trend, Brent crude oil price, and foreign funds movement will be keenly watched.

On Monday, the domestic bourses ended lower, snapping a three-session gaining streak, tracking weak cues from global peers, and a spurt in selling across the IT space after TCS reported lower-than-expected earnings in the June quarter. The market sentiment was further dented after the rupee hit a fresh lifetime low against the US dollar. The BSE Sensex closed 87 points, or 0.16% lower at 54,395, and the NSE Nifty slipped 5 points, or 0.03%, to settle at 16,216. The top losers on the Sensex pack were Bharti Airtel, TCS, HCL Tech, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra. On the gaining side, Tata Steel, M&M, Dr. Reddy’s, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, and Reliance Industries were among the top performers.

Stocks to watch

Paytm: The digital payments giant hit a new lending milestone in the first quarter of the financial year 2022-23, clocking a 492% growth in loan disbursals during the quarter. This aggregates to a total loan value of ₹5,554 crore ($703 million) during the quarter, recording year-on-year growth of 779%.

L&T: The engineering and construction major’s subsidiary, L&T Construction, has bagged contracts to build data centers of capacities that totaled 10.8 megawatts in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

Wipro: A firm owned by Wipro Enterprises, Wipro PARI, has signed a deal to acquire Hochrainer GmbH in Freilassing, Germany for strategic development in Europe.

Bank of Baroda: The PSU bank has hiked the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate up to 0.15% for select tenor of loans.

SpiceJet: The low-cost carrier has refuted reports that claimed a crack in windshield of an aircraft minutes after departure from Chennai.

Eureka Forbes: The company has appointed Pratik Pota as managing director and chief executive officer of the company for a term of five years with effect from August 16.

Star Housing Finance: The company has reported 474% YoY growth in profit at ₹136 crore for the April-June quarter of 2022, while total income climbed 38% to ₹617 crore.

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

Wall Street ends lower

In the overnight trade, the U.S. stocks settled lower as investors turned jittery ahead of CPI inflation data and corporate earnings that may potentially influence the Federal Reserve to continue its aggressive policy stance and deliver another interest rate increase later this month. The banking majors JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley will release their June quarter earnings on Thursday, while Citigroup and Wells Fargo on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.5% lower, the S&P 500 shed 1.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.3%.

Asian stocks fall on Covid concerns

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were reeling under selling stress in early trade on Tuesday, following a negative finish on Wall Street overnight as well as a fresh Covid-19 outbreak in China which could lead to lockdown restrictions and affect global economic growth. On Sunday, China’s Shanghai reported its first case of the highly contagious BA.5 omicron sub-variant, raising fears of more lockdown measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Markets in mainland China were down, with the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component falling 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

The Taiwan Weighted Index was the worst performer in the region with a sharp decline of 2.2%, followed by regional heavyweight Japan’s Nikkei 225, which dropped 1.8% in early trade.

In a similar trend, South Korea’s Kospi shed 1.1% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong tumbled 0.8%.

Bucking the trend, Australia’s ASX 200 rose 0.2%, Singapore Straits Times gained 0.4%, and Jakarta Composite in Indonesia was trading flat with marginal gains.

Crude prices drop 1%

The price of Brent and U.S. crude fell nearly 1% in early trade on Tuesday amid fear of potential lockdowns in China following the outbreak of a new deadly Covid-19 variant in Shanghai that could hit oil demand. In Asian trading hours on Monday, the Brent oil for September delivery was down 0.84% to $106.2 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude August futures were down 0.95% at $103.10 a barrel.

FIIs continue selling spree

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree in the Indian equity market on July 11, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also turned net sellers. As per the exchange data, FIIs net sold shares worth ₹170.5 crore, while DIIs offloaded shares worth ₹297 crore.

Corporate results

The companies which will release their June quarter earnings on July 12 include HCL Technologies, Anand Rathi Wealth, Artson Engineering, Delta Corp, Goa Carbon, Plastiblends India, Roselabs Finance, Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy, Shree Ganesh Remedies, Swiss Military Consumer Goods, Trident Texofab, and Virinchi.