Gap-up opening seen for Sensex, Nifty; HDFC Bank, HUL, BPCL shares eyed

Indian equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, are expected to open flat-to-higher on Wednesday, tracking mixed cues from global peers. The positive trend at Gift Nifty also signals a gap-up start for the Indian stock market, with Nifty futures trading 18.5 points, or 0.08%, to 23,167.

In the overnight trade, Wall Street ended higher, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones hitting one month high as investors cheered Donald Trump's decision to boost investment in artificial intelligence. The sentiment was further lifted as his first actions as U.S. president around international trade was not very harsh as initially believed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.24% higher, the S&P 500 gained 0.88%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.64% higher

Undermining firm cues from U.S. stocks, markets in Asia Pacific region traded mixed after President Donald Trump announced he was considering a 10% tariff on China. Reacting to the news, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1% and 1.3%, respectively. On the other hand, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 1.5%, Australia’s ASX 200 added 0.3%, while South Korea’s KOSPI surged 0.7%.

Market end sharply lower on Tuesday

The BSE benchmark Sensex slipped below 76,000 mark to hit seven months low, while the broader NSE Nifty tested 23,000 level as disappointing earnings and persistent concerns over President Trump's potential trade policies left investors jittery. The Sensex declined 1.60% to settle at 75838, and the Nifty50 declined by 1.37% to settle at 23025. The market witnessed broad-based selling with all sectoral indices slipping in negative zone, led by banking and metal stocks. The total market capitalisation of the BSE-listed companies dropped over ₹6.4 lakh crore to ₹424 lakh crore.

Stocks to watch

Q3 earnings: Index heavyweights HUL, HDFC Bank, BPCL, Pidilite Industries, Go Digit General Insurance, Gravita India, Heritage Foods, HUDCO, Laxmi Organic Industries, Nuvoco Vistas Corporation, Persistent Systems, Pidilite Industries, Polycab India, and Tata Communication are slated to release their earnings today. Traders will also react to earnings results from Tata Technologies, IndiaMART InterMESH, Dalmia Bharat, and India Cements.

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail: The company completed a fundraise through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) of equity shares amounting to Rs 1,860 crore.

Sobha: The real estate developer has received call money on the first and final call aggregating to Rs 994.74 crore for the rights share issue.

RailTel Corporation of India: The PSU company has secured a work order worth Rs 46.79 crore from North Western Railway for signalling.

JK Tyre & Industries: The International Finance Corporation has sanctioned a $100 million sustainability-linked loan to JK Tyre.

Wendt (India): Wendt GmbH plans to divest its entire stake of 37.5% in the company through one or more transactions in the secondary market.

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