Sensex, Nifty to open higher; RIL, SBI, NTPC, Future Enterprises, IndusInd Bank shares eyed

Indian equity benchmarks are poised to rise in opening trade on Friday, tracking mixed cues from Asian peers and a strong finish at Wall Street overnight. The positive trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-up opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 72 points, or 0.42%, higher at 17,294 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:25 AM.

On Thursday, the domestic benchmark indices ended lower for the second straight session due to sustained selling in bank and auto stocks amid a weak trend in global equity markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex ended 89.14 points, or 0.15%, lower at 57,595, while the broader NSE Nifty dipped 22.90 points, or 0.13%, to settle at 17,223. From the 30-share pack, Kotak Mahindra Bank fell the most by 3.09%, followed by Titan, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Maruti Suzuki India, among others.

Stocks to focus

Future Enterprises: The cash-strapped Future group company has defaulted on payment of ₹93.99 crore to Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank under the one-time restructuring (OTR) plan. The due date for payment of the amount was March 23, it said in a regulatory filing.

Reliance Industries: Mukesh Ambani-led company and Assets Care & Reconstruction Enterprise (ACRE) have jointly bid to acquire debt-ridden Sintex Industries, which has been filed before the Ahmedabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for its approval. The resolution plan proposed by RIL and ACRE has been approved by the Committee of Creditors (CoC).

NPTC: The state-owned power transmission company has made commercially operational an additional 42.5 MW of power generation capacity at Ramagundam floating solar project in Telangana from Thursday. Previously, the company had commissioned 17.5 MW (Part-I) and 20 MW (Part-II) of the Ramagundam floating solar project.

Motherson Sumi Systems: The auto components maker has secured an order from Boeing to manufacture and supply aftermarket molded polymer parts for commercial airplane interiors. The project will commence from the third quarter of FY23 and will be produced at a plant situated in Noida.

JK Tyre & Industries: The tyre maker has said it has come up with the country's first puncture guard technology in tyres for four-wheelers. The technology, with specially engineered self-healing elastomer inner coat, applied inside the tyres through an automated process, heals the punctures.

Reliance Home Finance: The housing finance company has appointed Sudeep Ghoshal as an additional director.

IndusInd Bank: The private lender has announced a grant of 23,500 Stock Options (convertible into 23,500 equity shares of the bank, upon exercise) to 3 eligible employees in terms of the ESOP scheme.

Sonata Software: The company has been declared as the winner of the prestigious ‘Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance’ for 2021 by the Institute of Directors.

State Bank of India (SBI): The PSU lender has acquired a 9.90% stake in the National Assets Reconstruction Company.

Orchid Pharma: The pharma company has incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary in India namely “Orchid Bio-Pharma Limited” on March 24, 2022. The incorporation of the subsidiary will leverage the growth opportunities in the evolving pharma space, it said.

G R Infraprojects: The infra company has formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, GR Highways Investment Manager, on March 23, 2022, in the state of Haryana.

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

Wall Street rise on robust macro data

In the overnight trade, all three major U.S. indices closed higher on solid jobless claims data and as investors bought the dip. Investors also watched the U.S. and its western allies pledged new sanctions and humanitarian aid on Thursday in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1%, the S&P 500 gained 1.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended 1.9% higher.

Russian market resumed trade with a bang

Russian stocks witnessed a strong rally after the market reopened for limited trading after being shut down for a month following the invasion of Ukraine. The Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) surged more than 10% before settling 4.4% higher on Thursday, led by Russian blue-chips such as Sberbank and Gazprom, which rose up to 5-15%. The Russian stock market opened for trading for just four hours, with only 33 of the 50 ruble-denominated stocks. The MOEX Russian index is still down by nearly 30% since the invasion of Ukraine on February 25.

Asian stocks mixed

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region witnessed mixed trading in early deals on Friday after a strong rally in the last two sessions. Regional heavyweight Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 dropped 0.2%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong dipped 0.4%, and South Korea’s KOSPI traded flat.

The Straits Times Index in Singapore gained 0.5% and Australia’s ASX 200 index rose 0.3%, while Taiwan’s Weighted index slipped 0.1%.

In mainland China, the Shenzhen Component fell 0.25%, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.06%.

Petrol, diesel prices hiked for three in four days

Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by another 80 paise a litre for the third time in the last four days in the backdrop of the continued rise in the international crude oil market. On Tuesday, oil marketing companies had raised fuel prices by 80 paise after a gap of four months, followed by another 80 paise on Wednesday. In total, ₹2.4 per litre has been raised over four days.

In the Asian trading hours on Friday, the U.S. WTI crude futures were down 0.3% to $112 a barrel, while the Brent oil futures dropped 0.12% to $118.84 per barrel.

FIIs turn net sellers, DIIs net buyers

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers in the Indian equity market on March 24, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) emerged as net buyers. As per the exchange data, FIIs net sold shares worth ₹1,740.7 crore, while DIIs net purchased shares worth ₹2,091.07 crore.