Sensex, Nifty to open in Red; RIL, Future Enterprises, Adani Power, Wipro, Tata Power shares eyed

Indian benchmark indices, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are set to fall in opening trade on Friday, tracking weak cues from Asian peers and a record sell-off on Wall Street overnight. The negative trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a bearish opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 259 points, or 1.55%, lower at 16,432 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:00 AM. Investors will also keep track of earnings reports with some major companies such as Reliance Industries, Tata Power Company, Canara Bank, Federal Bank, Bajaj Consumer Care, set to release their March quarter results today.

On Thursday, the domestic bourses ended on a flat note with a positive bias amid mixed global cues as investors digested rate hike decisions by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and U.S. Federal Reserve. Paring opening gains, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex closed just 33 points higher at 55,702, snapping its three-session losing streak. Similarly, the NSE Nifty rose 5 points to settle at 16,683. The top performers on the Sensex pack were Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank and TCS. On the flip side, IndusInd Bank, Nestle, UltraTech Cement, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, PowerGrid, Bajaj Finserv and Titan were among the notable losers.

Shares to focus

Future Enterprises: The cash-strapped company has sold its 25% stake in Future Generali India Insurance Company (FGIICL) to its joint venture partner Generali Participations Netherlands N. V. for ₹1,266.07 crore. It will continue to hold a 24.91% stake in FGIICL.

Adani Power: The Adani group firm has reported a sharp rise in consolidated net profit at ₹4,645 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022, as compared to ₹13 crore during the corresponding quarter last year. The revenue stood at ₹13,308 crore, growing at 93.5% year-on-year as compared to 6,902 crore in Q4 FY21.

Dabur India: The FMCG company reported a 21.98% decline in consolidated net profit at ₹294.34 crore, as against ₹377.29 crore in the same period last year. The consolidated revenue from operations rose 7.74% to ₹2,517.81 crore during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022, as against ₹2,336.79 crore in the year-ago period.

Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (CIFCL): The Murugappa group firm has posted a 184% rise in net profit for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2021-22 to ₹690 crore as against ₹243 crore in the same period in 2020-21. The total income was up 6% YoY at ₹2,632 crore.

Adani Transmission: The company has registered a decline of 7.6% in its consolidated net profit to ₹237 crore in the March quarter of 2022, compared with ₹256.55 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income rose to ₹3,165.35 crore in the quarter from ₹2,875.60 crore in the year-ago period.

Railtel Corp of India: The state-run company has bagged an order worth ₹97.64 crore from the Madhya Pradesh government for expansion of the state data centre and establishment of a disaster recovery centre.

Tata Power: The company’s solar arm has won India's largest solar engineering procurement and construction (EPC) order for 1 GW project worth ₹5,500 crore from state-owned SJVN Ltd.

Borosil Renewables: The company’s net profit fell to ₹46.38 crore in March 2022 quarter, as against ₹66.87 crore in the year-ago period. The total income too slipped to ₹182.33 crore, from ₹196.90 crore a year ago.

Marico: The FMCG firm on Thursday reported a 13.2% YoY growth in consolidated net profit to ₹257 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022. Its revenue from operations climbed 7.40% to ₹2,161 crore in Q4 FY22, against Rs 2,012 crore a year ago.

Blue Star: The air-conditioning and commercial refrigeration company saw its net profit rising by 12% YoY to Rs 76.27 crore in Q4 FY22, driven by strong demand amid early onset of summers this season.

TVS Motor: The auto major has appointed Sudarshan Venu as its managing director effective May 5. He is the son of TVS Motor’s chairman emeritus, Venu Srinivasan.

Wipro: The IT major has teamed up with domestic telecom gear maker HFCL to jointly develop a 5G product portfolio, mainly the routers required to connect mobile sites with the core network of telecom operators.

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

Wall Street slumps on Fed rate hike

In the overnight trade, the U.S. indices reported the biggest intraday fall since 2020 as investors weighed aggressive policy stance by the Federal Reserve and rollback of economic stimulus to contain inflation. The market fell sharply following a 3% up move on Wednesday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that a rate increase of 75 basis points is off the table for coming meetings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 3.12%, the S&P 500 tumbled 3.56%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended 4.99% lower.

Asian stocks fall in opening trade

Shares in the Asia region witnessed sharp selling in opening deals on Friday, tracking a negative finish at Wall Street overnight. The market sentiments were dented by aggressive central bank policies around the world to combat rising inflation. On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its interest rate by 50 basis points, followed by Bank of England, which hiked interest rates to 1% from 0.75%, touching their highest level since the financial crisis to tame double-digit inflation.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was the worst performer in the region with a loss of 2.6%. It was followed by Australia’s ASX 200 which dropped 2.3%. Similarly, Taiwan’s Weighted index plunged by 2.1%. the Straits Times Index in Singapore tumbled 1.3%, and South Korea’s KOSPI dived 1.4%.

Bucking the trend, Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 was up 0.1% in early trade.

In mainland China, the Shenzhen Component and the Shanghai Composite fell 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively.

Oil prices top $110 on supply concerns

The price of Brent and U.S. crude oil topped $110 a barrel marks in early trade on Friday amid supply concerns as the European Union plans to impose a ban on Russia oil imports. The market sentiment was also dented amid reports that the U.S. government will purchase 60 million barrels of crude in the third quarter (Jul-Sept 2022) to replace volumes in the country’s strategic petroleum for the first time in nearly 20 years.

In Asian trading hours on Friday, the Brent oil for July delivery was up 0.8% at $111.78 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude June futures rose 0.8% to $109.13 a barrel.

FIIs turn net buyers

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers in the Indian equity market for the first time in the last fifteen sessions on April 28, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to support the market. As per the exchange data, FIIs net brought shares worth ₹743.22 crore, while DIIs net purchased shares worth ₹780.94 crore.

Corporate earnings

The major companies that are slated to release their earnings numbers today include Reliance Industries, Tata Power Company, Canara Bank, Federal Bank, Bajaj Consumer Care. Among others, CSB Bank, Great Eastern Shipping Company, Sundaram-Clayton, Apollo Pipes, Apollo Tricoat Tubes, Greenpanel Industries, Grindwell Norton, Hariom Pipe Industries, Kokuyo Camlin, Shipping Corporation of India, Paisalo Digital, Paushak, Reliance Home Finance, Vesuvius India, and Vikas EcoTech, will also unveil their March quarter results on April May 6.