Sensex, Nifty to open in red; Lupin, RIL, Future Retail, Tata Power, Exide shares in focus

Indian equity benchmarks are poised to fall in opening trade, mirroring weakness in Asia and on Wall Street overnight on renewed inflation fears. The U.S. inflation hit a 40-year high of 7.9% in February, raising fear that the Federal Reserve would hike key interest rates at its policy meeting due next week. The negative trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-down opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 80 points, or 0.48%, lower at 16,490 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:20 AM.

On Tuesday, the domestic benchmarks closed higher, snapping a four-session losing streak, led by gains in realty, IT, technology, and pharma stocks. The BSE Sensex rallied as much as 1,163 points from the day's low to end 581 points or 1.1% higher at 53,424 levels. In a similar trend, the Nifty50 index rebounded from its intraday low of 15,671 to settle at 16,013, up 150 points or 0.95%. Among sectors, information technology and realty space gained the most, while metal and oil & gas sectors were among the worst performers. The top gainers on the Sensex pack were Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, NTPC, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra.

Stocks to focus

Exide Industries: The company has entered into a multi-year technical collaboration with a Chinese company for lithium-Ion battery manufacturing in India. The firm in an exchange filing said partner SVOLT Energy Technology Co Ltd (SVOLT) will provide the support required for setting up of a state-of-the-art greenfield manufacturing plant on a turnkey basis.

Tata Power: The electric-vehicle charging infra provider has inked a pact with Enviro - the facility management wing of real estate developer Vatika Group - to install 59 EV charging points at its properties in Gurugram. As per the company, the EV chargers will be installed at 18 locations across the properties of Vatika Group in the city.

Future Retail: The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group firm said Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail has served notices to the company for terminating sub-leases of 950 stores it had taken over previously. "So far notices have been received in respect of 342 large format stores (such as Big Bazaar, Fashion@ Big Bazaar (fbb)) and 493 small-format stores (such as Easyday and Heritage stores) of the company," it said.

Reliance Industries: The oil and gas major has reportedly sold natural gas produced from a coalfield in Madhya Pradesh for over $23 to firms, including GAIL, GSPC, and Shell.

NMDC: The state-run firm has e-auctioned 8,337 carats of rough diamonds produced at its Panna diamond mines in Madhya Pradesh. The e-auction process received an overwhelming response from Diamond merchants of Surat, Mumbai, and Panna, it said in an exchange filing.

Zydus Lifesciences: The drugmaker on Thursday said the US health regulator has issued three observations after inspecting its Jarod (Vadodara) based manufacturing facility. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) inspected the injectable facility from February 24 to March 10, 2022.

Tata Steel: Neelachal Ispat Nigam’s JV partners have signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with Tata Steel Long Products, paving the way for NINL privatisation. NINL is a joint venture of MMTC, NMDC, BHEL, MECON, and 2 Odisha government PSUs - OMC and IPICOL.

Colgate-Palmolive (India): The FMCG major has appointed former Hindustan Unilever (HUL) executive Prabha Narasimhan as managing director and chief executive officer. The Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) has recommended her name to the board for her appointment, effective September 1, Colgate-Palmolive said in a regulatory update.

Lupin: The pharma company has opened its first reference laboratory in Kolkata, which will act as a hub for expansion in Eastern India.

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

Wall Street ends lower as inflation hits 40-year high

In the overnight trade, all the three major U.S. indices closed lower as inflation hit a four-decade high of 7.9% last month, raising concerns that the Federal Reserve would hike key interest rates at next week's monetary policy meeting. Adding to it, persistent concerns about Russia's invasion of Ukraine also triggered a sell-off in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.34%, the S&P 500 shed 0.43%, and the Nasdaq Composite settled 0.95% lower.

Asian markets drop on U.S. inflation concerns

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were trading lower in early deals on Friday, reversing previous session gains, following a negative finish at Wall Street overnight. Investors weighed the record rise in the U.S. consumer prices that surged to a 7.9% in February, the highest in the last forty years. Given the sharp spike in inflation, the market is expecting the U.S. Fed Reserve to raise interest rates by 25 basis points at the conclusion of next week's monetary policy meeting.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was the worst performer in the region with a 3% loss, followed by Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225, which dropped 2.35%. South Korea’s KOSPI also dived 0.9%.

The Straits Times Index in Singapore traded marginally lower, Taiwan’s Weighted index dipped 0.68% and Australia’s ASX 200 index declined 0.9%.

In mainland China, the Shenzhen component dropped 1.48%, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.83% in early deals.

Brent crude prices slip below $110

The oil price witnessed volatile trade overnight with the Brent crude rising as much as 6.5% during the session, before settling 1% lower at $109.87 a barrel. The US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude oil, settled down 2.2% at $106.30, after surging nearly 6% earlier in the trade.

During the early Asian trading hours on Friday, the WTI crude futures dropped 0.1% to $105.89 a barrel, while the Brent oil futures fell 0.6% to $108.5 per barrel.

Uncertainty about crude supply amid sanctions on Russian oil exports dampened market sentiment even as the UAE assured to encourage the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to ramp up oil supply to fill the supply gap created after sanctions on Russia.