Sensex, Nifty to rise; Adani group, Hero MotoCorp, ONGC, Thermax, IIFL Finance shares eyed

The Indian equity benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are set to open higher on Friday, following firm trading in Asia and positive finish on Wall Street overnight. The bullish trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-up opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 90 points, or 0.58%, higher at 15,654 levels on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 7:45 AM. However, continued fund outflows by foreign investors and recession woes after the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony before Congress may weigh on investors’ sentiment.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, says, “There is some clear economic and market trends. Leading indicators such as PMI and retail sales in Europe and U.S. indicate economic slowdown. Most central banks of the world are hiking rates in this slowdown. Therefore, the slowdown will continue and may aggravate pushing the U.S. economy into recession. Since the market knows this, equities are in oversold territory, triggering short-term upmoves.”

“The whipsaw movement in Nifty yesterday reflects this uncertainty, confusion and lack of direction. Accenture's results indicate continued robust demand for IT. Indian IT companies' Q1 results are likely to be very good, but the stock movements will be decided by their FY23 guidance. A crash in metal prices is a strong positive for autos," he adds.

On Thursday, the Indian share market ended higher by nearly 1%, led by gains in auto, IT and banking shares. The 30-share BSE Sensex settled 443 points or 0.86% higher at 52,266, with 27 of its scrips flashing in green. Similarly, the NSE Nifty surged 143 points or 0.93% to close at 15,557 points. Maruti was the biggest gainer among Sensex stocks, followed by M&M, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, and HUL. Among IT stocks, TCS was the best performer, followed by Wipro, Tech Mahindra, and Infosys. On the sectoral front, the BSE auto index jumped the most by 4.42%, followed by consumer discretionary goods & services, Information Technology, teck, and telecom, which gained in the range of 1-2%.

Stocks to watch

Adani Group: Shares of Adani group companies will be in focus after chairman Gautam Adani on Thursday committed to donating ₹60,000 crore to various charities related to health care, education, and skill development. This is touted to be one of the biggest donations by a business family in India.

Hero MotoCorp: The two-wheeler major will increase prices of motorcycles and scooters from July 1 to partially offset rising input costs. The price will be hiked up to ₹3,000, subject to the specific model and market.

ONGC: The state-owned oil and gas major said that its overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, has made an oil discovery in a recently drilled well Urraca-IX in CPO-5 block, Llanos Basin, Colombia.

IT stocks: Shares of IT companies will be in focus after the US-based IT major Accenture reported higher-than-expected earnings for the third quarter ended May 31. Its revenue rose 22% year-on-year (YoY) to $16.2 billion, while it trimmed its profit forecast for the 2022 fiscal.

Thermax: The firm said that its subsidiary, First Energy, has acquired two companies - Jalansar Wind Energy and Kanakal Wind Energy – operating in the renewable energy sector.

IIFL Finance: The financial services company on Thursday unveiled a plan to raise debt capital worth ₹5,000 crore by issuing bonds on a private placement basis.

Jammu & Kashmir Bank: The PSU bank said the board will meet on June 28 to consider raising capital (Tier I/Tier II) during the financial year 2022-23.

Dish TV: A division bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected the petition filed by Dish TV's promoter group firm, seeking to restrain YES Bank from voting at the company’s extraordinary general meeting.

Century Plyboards: The company has made additional investments of ₹20.95 crore in its wholly owned subsidiary, Century Panels, by subscribing to 2.09 crore shares via a rights issue.

DCM Shriram: The company in an exchange filing said its board has approved to invest up to ₹65 crore for minimum 26% equity stake in special purpose vehicle (SPV) for wind-solar hybrid renewable power project.

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

Wall Street rebounds

In the overnight trade, all three major U.S. indices closed higher as investors discounted the risk of aggressive interest rate hike on the global economies. According to experts, there is high uncertainty regarding future outlook which created confusion in the market, with some traders raising concerns about a looming recession. In a testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, Federal Chairman Jerome Powell the central bank was committed to curb inflation, while he also acknowledged that a recession was "certainly a possibility". The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6%, the S&P 500 added 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.6%.

Asian stocks rise on firm global cues

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region rebounded on Friday, following a positive finish on Wall Street overnight. South Korea’s Kospi was the best performer in the region with a 1.8% gain, followed by the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong, which rose 1.5%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was trading 0.7% higher, the Straits Times Index in Singapore added 0.3%, and Australia’s ASX 200 climbed 0.25%. Among others, Taiwan Weighted surged 1.4%.

Markets in mainland China were trading higher, with the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component rising 0.2% and 0.9%, respectively.

Crude prices steady

The price of Brent and U.S. crude was steady in early trade on Friday after falling nearly 2% in overnight trade amid fears of the possible recession in the global economy in the wake of recent rate hikes and a weak demand outlook for the commodity.

In Asian trading hours, the Brent oil for August delivery slipped 0.3% to $109.7 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude August futures were down 0.11% at $104.1 a barrel.

FIIs extend selling spree

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree in the Indian equity market on June 23, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to support the market. As per the exchange data, FIIs net sold shares worth ₹2,319.06 crore, while DIIs net purchased shares worth ₹2,438.31 crore.