Sensex, Nifty to open higher; Bharti Airtel, TVS Motor, HPCL, NALCO, Castrol India shares in focus

Indian equity benchmarks are poised to start the day on a positive note, following firm cues from Asian peers. The trends on the SGX Nifty futures also indicated a gap-up opening for domestic bourses, with Nifty futures trading 49.5 points, or 0.29%, higher at 17,263 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 7:10 AM.

The equity market may witness some volatility ahead of Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy outcome tomorrow. Investors will keep a close eye on the RBI’s policy outlook as they feared that policymakers may take note of rising Brent crude prices that hit $95 a barrel last week, raising inflationary concerns.

On Monday, the domestic benchmarks closed lower for the third straight session amid continued fund outflow by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the backdrop of rising U.S. bond yields and crude oil prices. The BSE Sensex ended 1,023 points, or 1.75%, lower at 57,621, and the NSE Nifty fell 302 points, 1.73%, to 17,213. In a similar fashion, the broader markets also ended sharply lower. The S&P BSE Midcap index plunged 1.25%, and the S&P BSE Smallcap index fell 0.75%. The top five losers on the BSE Sensex pack were HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, and Housing Development Finance Corporation. The market witnessed broad-based selling with all sectoral indices, barring power and PSU, ending in negative terrain.

Stocks to focus

Bharti Airtel: The telecom major has reportedly given order worth around ₹150 crore to telecom gear company Huawei for maintenance of the company’s transmission network.

Union Bank of India: The PSU lender has reported 49.3% year-on-year growth in net profit at ₹1,085 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021 (Q3FY22), driven by rise in interest margins and sharp drop in provisions. On the sequential basis, the profit dropped from ₹1,526 crore in the second quarter ended September 2021 (Q2FY22).

TVS Motor Company: The auto major’s net profit rose 9% to Rs 288 crore in Q3FY22, from ₹266 crore in the year-ago period, driven by improvement in sales. It reported highest-ever operating revenue of ₹5,706 crore in the third quarter of 2021-22, compared to ₹5,391 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

HPCL: The oil company’s Visakha refinery is set for modernisation and expansion at a cost of ₹26,264 crore. Under the Visakha Refinery Modernisation Project (VRMP), the capacity of the refinery would be expanded from the present 8.3 to 15 million metric tonne per annum.

National Aluminium Company (NALCO): The company’s December quarter consolidated profit jumped over three times to ₹830.67 crore, as against ₹239.71 crore in the year-ago period. Income during the quarter increased to ₹3,845.25 crore over ₹2,414.95 crore in the year-ago period.

Hindustan Zinc: The National Green Tribunal has reportedly slapped a fine of ₹25 crore to the mining company for violating environmental norms in Bhilwada district of Rajasthan.

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals: The drug maker has posted a 3.93% YoY drop in consolidated net profit to ₹150.35 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2021. Total income rose to ₹826.24 crore as compared with ₹805.89 crore in the year-ago period.

Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd (GIPL): The company saw its profit falling by nearly 9% YoY to ₹27.91 crore during the December 2021 quarter, dented by lower revenues. The total income during October-December 2021 stood at ₹266.49 crore, compared with ₹338.97 crore in the year-ago period.

Castrol India: The lubricant brand has registered a flat net profit of ₹189 crore for the fourth quarter ended December 31. 2021. The company, which follows the calendar year (January to December) for its financial reporting, posted a 17% YoY rise in revenue at ₹1,091 crore.

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

U.S. stocks end lower as Meta, tech stocks weigh

On Wall Street, the major U.S. indices closed lower as investors digested recent quarterly earnings from Facebook owner Meta and e-commerce giant Amazon, while caution prevailed in the market ahead of inflation data. Investors feared that strong macro data and rise in inflation would prompt the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates faster than expected. Adding to it, sell-off in technology stocks, led by Meta Platform also injected negativity in the market.

In the volatile trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended flat, the S&P 500 dropped 0.37%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.58%.

Asian shares trade mostly higher

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were trading mostly higher in early deals on Tuesday, undermining weak cues from Wall Street which finished lower overnight.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.5% in early deals, South Korea’s KOSPI climbed 0.8%, and the Straits Times in Singapore gained nearly 0.9%. Australia’s ASX 200 index rallied as much as 1.3%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.1%, while Taiwan Weighted Stock Index rose 0.6%. China’s Shanghai Composite also edge lower in early deals.

Corporate earnings

The big players that will release their December quarter earnings reports today include Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Electricals, IRCTC, Escorts, Godrej Consumer Products, Indraprastha Gas, Bata India, Jindal Steel & Power.

Among others, Ajmera Realty & Infra India, Aster DM Healthcare, Astrazeneca Pharma, Borosil Renewables, Data Patterns (India), Endurance Technologies, Glenmark Life Sciences, Granules India, Gujarat Gas, HeidelbergCement India, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Jagran Prakashan, J Kumar Infraprojects, JK Paper, Kolte-Patil Developers, Latent View Analytics, Mahanagar Gas, NCC, NMDC, Praj Industries, Redington (India), RITES, Stove Kraft, Suven Pharmaceuticals, and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), will also release their earnings report on February 8.

FIIs, DIIs turn net seller

On Monday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) emerged as net sellers in the Indian equity market on February 7. As per the data available on the NSE, FIIs net sold shares worth ₹1,157.2 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net offloaded shares worth ₹1,376.5 crore in the domestic equity market.