Sensex, Nifty seen opening lower; Airtel, GAIL, Dr Reddy's, L&T, Future Retail shares eyed

Indian benchmark indices, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are set to open lower on Wednesday, tracking weak cues from Asian peers, while fast spreading of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 may also weigh on market sentiment. The bearish trends on SGX Nifty also signalled a negative opening for the Indian equities, with SGX Nifty futures trading 78.5 points, or 0.44%, lower at 17,796 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:00 AM.

On Tuesday, the Indian share market ended higher for the third straight session, following firm cues from global peers, while solid gains in index heavyweights such as RIL, SBI, Titan, and NTPC also supported the upmove in the domestic share market. The BSE Sensex ended 672 points, or 1.14%, higher at 59,856 on January 4. In a similar trend, the NSE Nifty surged 179 points, or 1.02%, to settle at 17,805. Continuing last year’s stellar rally, Sensex has gained 1,600 points in the first two days of the calendar year 2022, making investors richer by ₹4.76 lakh crore during this period. The top gainer of the BSE Sensex pack was state-run power utility company NTPC, which ended 5.5% higher on Tuesday. The other top performers on the BSE Sensex pack include Reliance Industries, Power Grid Corporation of India, State Bank of India, Titan Company, which rose over 2% each.

Individual companies that will be in focus on Wednesday include Bharti Airtel, GAIL (India), Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Larsen & Toubro, Future Retail, Go Fashion India, and others.

Bharti Airtel: Investors will keep an eye on the stocks of telecom major after it announced that its arm, Airtel Payments Bank, has been categorised as a scheduled bank by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

GAIL (India): The state-run company has completed the acquisition of crisis-hit Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services' (ILFS) 26% shares in ONGC Tripura Power Company for ₹1,227 crore.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories: The drugmaker has said it will launch Covid-19 pill Molflu (Molnupiravir) at ₹35 per capsule in the country.

Reliance Industries: The company’s telecom arm, Reliance Jio, is reportedly planning to launch its biggest ever rupee bond sale for gaining market share.

DB Realty: The board of real estate company has given nod to a proposal to raise up to ₹130.50 crore by way of issue of convertible warrants to promoters and non-promoters on a preferential basis.

State Bank of India (SBI): The public sector lender has invested $20 million in Pine Labs, a fintech company.

Larsen & Toubro: The engineering and construction major said its arm has secured a major order from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the design and construction of the underground metro project Phase-1 of Patna Mass Rapid Transit System.

Future Retail: In a major blow to the company, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected its plea seeking to quash the ongoing arbitration proceedings in Singapore with Amazon pertaining to merger deal with Reliance Retail.

Bank stocks: Shares of Bank of Maharashtra, Bandhan Bank, IDFC First Bank and HDFC Bank will in focus today after they reported growth in their advances and deposit base during the December quarter.

Go Fashion India: SBI Funds Management has acquired 0.85% shares in the company via open market transaction on January 3. With this, SBI Funds Management’s stake in the company increased to 5.43% from 4.57% earlier.

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

Wall Street closes mixed, NSADAQ retreats

The U.S. stocks closed mixed in overnight trade as sell-off in technology shares dragged NASADAQ Composite lower, while surge in banks and industrial stocks pushed the Dow Jones higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.59%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.06%, while the tech-heavy- NASDAQ Composite dropped 1.33%, led by electric car maker Tesla, iPhone maker Apple and IT giant Microsoft Corp. The market sentiment was also dented by spike in coronavirus infections, with daily tally surging to almost 1 million on Monday, nearly double the country's peak of 505,109 hit just a week ago.

Asian markets mostly lower in early trade

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region traded mostly lower in early trade on Wednesday, following mixed trend at Wall Street overnight. Investors remained concerned about rising Covid-19 cases in the region, while worries about the U.S. Fed rate hike also dented market sentiment. Investors will keep an eye on the U.S. December payroll data and minutes from the Fed’s last month meeting later in the week which may give some clarity on the potential pace of rate hikes.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 edges higher in early trade as investors digested the impact of a weak yen against the U.S. dollar. Taiwan Weighted Index rose 0.14%, while Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite rose 0.35%.

Meanwhile, China’s Shanghai Composite index plunged 0.9% in early trade, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong nosedived 1.2%. South Korea’s KOSPI was the biggest loser in the regional market by falling 1.4%.

Australia’s ASX 200 index also dropped 0.3%, while the Straits Times Index in Singapore dipped 0.12%.

Oil settles higher as OPEC+ sticks with production hike plan

Global benchmark Brent crude crossed $80 a barrel in overnight trade on Tuesday, its highest since November, after OPEC+, a grouping of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, decided to stick with its planned increase for February. The members were of view that fresh wave of Covid-19 would have only a mild impact on fuel demand.

In the overnight trade, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude rose 1.16% at $76.96 a barrel, while the Brent oil climbed 1.23% to $79.95 per barrel.

Meanwhile, in the early Asian trading hours on Wednesday, the U.S. crude and Brent edged lower.

FIIs, DIIs turn net buyers for second day

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) emerged as net buyers in the Indian equity market for the second day on January 4. As per the data available on the NSE, FIIs purchased shares worth ₹1,273.86 crore, while DIIs net bought shares worth ₹532.97 crore.