Sensex, Nifty to rise; SBI Cards, Vi, Zomato, Vedanta, Future Retail, TCS shares in focus

Indian equity benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are set to open higher on Tuesday, following mixed cues from Asian peers and a strong finish on Wall Street overnight on news that Elon Musk has acquired a 9.2% equity shares in Twitter. The strong trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-up opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 100 points, or 0.56%, higher at 18,197 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:00 AM. However, a rebound in crude prices and reports of new sanctions against Russia will keep investors on edge.

On Monday, Indian benchmark indices closed higher for the second straight session, led by strong gains in the banking space as sentiments were boosted by HDFC-HDFC Bank merger news. The S&P BSE Sensex surged 1,335 points, or 2.25%, to settle at 60,612, and the NSE Nifty rallied 383 points, or 2.17%, to end at 18,053. The market witnessed broad-based buying with all sectors ending in green, while bank and power indices rose more than 3%. On the top 30-shares on the BSE Sensex pack, barring Infosys and Titan Company, all stocks closed in positive terrain. The top five gainers on the BSE Sensex pack were HDFC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL), and Larsen & Toubro.

Stocks to focus

SBI Cards & Payments Services: The payment solution company will be in focus as private equity firm Carlyle Group will offload its entire stake in the company via a block deal. CA Rover Holdings, a Carlyle entity, held 29.20 million shares or a 3.09% stake in the credit card company as of December 2021 quarter.

Tata Consultancy Services: The IT major has signed a strategic partnership with Payments Canada, the country’s largest payment organisation, to transform its payment system operations and help implement the Real-Time Rail (RTR).

Vodafone Idea: U.K.-based telecom major Vodafone has raised its stake in Vodafone Idea to 47.61% through its subsidiary Prime Metals. The company earlier held 44.39% stake in Vi, as per regulatory filing.

Future Retail: U.S.-based e-commerce giant Amazon and Future group company have informed the Supreme Court that they have agreed to appear before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).

Zomato: Competition Commission has reportedly ordered an investigation against food delivery platform for alleged unfair business practices with respect to their dealings with restaurant partners.

Vedanta: The mining major has posted a growth of 8% in its production of aluminium and zinc and that of iron ore by 18% during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022, as compared to the same period last year.

Future Enterprises: Two independent directors of the debt-laden company resigned from its board on Monday. Anand Chndrasekaran and Malini Chopra stepped down from the board, citing an increase of workload as among the reasons for their resignations.

PVR, INOX: The country’s leading multiplex operators, which recently announced their merger, have a combined pipeline of 2,000 screens and aim to double this size in next seven years, entailing an investment of ₹4,000 crore. The merged entity would invest capex of ₹2.5 crore per screen as part of their expansion, said Inox Leisure Director Siddharth Jain in a Business Update Conference Call with the investors after announcing the merger.

U GRO Capital: The fintech firm on Monday announced the appointment of Smita Aggarwal as additional independent director of the company.

Emami Realty: India Ratings and Research has upgraded the credit rating of the real estate company's long-term bank facilities at 'A-'/Stable.

Glenmark Pharma: The pharma company said that its board has approved repurchase of an aggregate principal amount of $75 million of bonds due in 2022.

IndusInd Bank: The private lender said that its net advances grew 13% year-on-year and up 5% compared to the previous quarter to ₹2.39 lakh crore at the end of March 2022 quarter. Deposits rose 15% YoY and 3% QoQ to ₹2.93 lakh crore in Q4FY22.

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

Wall Street closes higher on tech boost

In the overnight trade, all three major U.S. indices closed higher as market sentiment was boosted after Tesla’s Elon Musk acquired a big stake in the micro-blogging platform Twitter. The news boosted the U.S. tech sector, while it drove Twitter shares more than 27%. However, talk of more sanctions against Russia and uncertainties about global economic growth limited the market's gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, while the S&P 500 added 0.81%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended 1.9% higher.

Asian stocks trade mixed

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region traded mixed in early deals on Tuesday, undermining a positive finish on Wall Street overnight. The concerns about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and report of fresh sanctions against Moscow kept investors on edge. The regional market witnessed thin trade due to a holiday in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI traded lower with marginal losses, while Taiwan’s Weighted index dropped 0.4%.

Meanwhile, the Straits Times Index in Singapore rose 0.4%, Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite climbed 0.1%, and Australia’s ASX 200 index gained 0.75%.

Oil prices rise again on supply concerns

The price of a barrel of Brent and U.S. crude oil rose in overnight trade on Monday, triggered by reports of fresh sanctions on Russia, which reignited supply concerns. The report of stalled talk between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis group backed by Iran also pushed prices higher, while the release of crude strategic petroleum reserves kept prices in check. Last week, the U.S. government announced the release of 1 million barrels per day of oil for six months from May, which is being seen as the largest ever release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

In the Asian trading hours on Tuesday, the U.S. WTI crude futures were up 1.59% at $104.92 a barrel, while the Brent oil futures surged 1.58% to $109.23 per barrel.

Meanwhile, petrol and diesel prices were again hiked by 80 paise a litre on Tuesday, taking the overall increase in the last two weeks to ₹9.2 per litre. This was the 13th hike in fuel rates by the state-run oil companies since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.

FIIs, DIIs remain net buyers

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to remain net buyers in the Indian equity market. As per the exchange data, FIIs purchased shares worth ₹1,152.2 crore on April 4, while DIIs net brought shares worth ₹1,675 crore.