Sensex, Nifty to open in green; Coal India, BPCL, Grasim, NALCO shares in focus

The domestic bourses, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are set to bell the day in positive terrain, tracking positive cues from Asian peers despite a mixed closing on Wall Street overnight. The bullish trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-up opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 50 points, or 0.3%, higher at 16,164 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:15 AM. Investors will keep a close eye on corporate earnings with some major companies such as BPCL, Coal India, Fortis Healthcare and NALCO are slated to release their results today.

On Tuesday, the domestic bourses ended lower, paring opening gains, amid selling in IT stocks and weak cues from global markets. The 30-share BSE benchmark dropped 236 points, or 0.43%, to settle at 54,053, and the NSE Nifty fell 90 points, or 0.55%, to close at 16,125. The top losers on the BSE Sensex pack were Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies, Asian Paints, NTPC, Tata Steel, Infosys, Axis Bank, and Bajaj Finserv. In contrast, Dr Reddy’s, HDFC, PowerGrid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, and Nestle were among notable gainers.

Stocks to watch

Ruchi Soya, Adani Wilmar: Shares of edible oil manufacturers will be in focus as the central government on Tuesday scrapped customs duty and agriculture infrastructure development cess on the import of crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil for 20 lakh metric tonnes each per year to ease local prices.

Alembic Pharmaceuticals: The drug maker has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Pirfenidone tablets used to treat lung disease in the American market.

Jyothy Labs: The FMCG company has posted a 35.41% YoY rise in its consolidated net profit to ₹36.94 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022. Its revenue from operations climbed 10.42% YoY to ₹546.71 crore during the period under review.

Grasim Industries: The Aditya Birla Group firm registered a 55.5% surge in its consolidated net profit at ₹4,070.46 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2022, compared to ₹2,616.64 crore in the year ago period. Its revenue from operations rose 18% to ₹28,811.39 crore in Q4FY22.

Ipca Laboratories: The pharma company saw its consolidated net profit declining by 19% YoY to ₹130.23 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2022, due to higher expenses. The consolidated total income increased to ₹1,303.64 crore as against ₹1,134.58 crore in the year-ago period.

Balrampur Chini Mills: The sugar major reported a 2% rise in its consolidated net profit at ₹240.48 crore for the quarter ended March, compared with ₹235.50 crore in the year-ago period. Total income climbed to ₹1,291.37 crore, versus ₹1,027.24 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL): The Tata group hospitality firm on Tuesday said its board has approved the re-appointment of Puneet Chhatwal as Managing Director and CEO for another term of five years.

Bayer CropScience: The global pharma and chemicals major saw its profit jumping more than two-fold to ₹152.7 crore for the fourth quarter ended on March 31, 2022, compared to ₹61.9 crore during the corresponding period last year. The revenue from operations surged 31.29% to ₹963.3 crore compared to ₹733.7 crore in the year ago period.

F&O ban: Shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance will be under F&O ban today as its securities have crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit.

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

Wall Street ends lower

In the overnight trade, the U.S. indices closed mostly lower, led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq as market sentiments were dented by weak economic data and persistent concerns that aggressive policy measures to curb soaring inflation might push the U.S. economy into recession. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.45%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.8%, while the Dow Jones index rose 0.2%.

Asian stocks edge higher

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were trading mostly higher in early trade on Wednesday, shrugging off weak trends in U.S. and European markets. However, global growth concerns and fear about a potential rate hike by the European Central Bank and U.S. Federal Reserve kept investors on edge. Barring Japan, all major regional markets were trading in the green zone.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.1%, while South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.6%. Taiwan’s Weighted index jumped 0.7%, Australia's ASX 200 index added 0.7%, and the Straits Times Index in Singapore rose 0.1%.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 0.2%, while Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite also traded higher with marginal gains.

In mainland China, shares were trading on a mixed note with the Shenzhen Component falling 0.4% while the Shanghai Composite rising 0.5% in early trade.

Crude prices edge higher

The price of Brent and U.S. crude edged higher in early trade on Wednesday, amid tight supplies and the prospect of improving fuel demand in China with easing Covid-19 restrictions. In Asian trading hours, the Brent oil for July delivery rose 1.1% to $112 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude July futures rose 1.2% to $111.05 a barrel.

FIIs remain net sellers, DIIs net buyers

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to remain net sellers in the Indian equity market on May 24, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to support the market. As per the exchange data, FIIs net sold shares worth ₹2,393.45 crore, while DIIs net purchased shares worth ₹1,948.49 crore.

Corporate earnings

The major companies that are expected to release their March quarter earnings today include BPCL, Coal India, Fortis Healthcare, NALCO, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, Deepak Fertilisers, HEG, NHPC, Easy Trip Planners, GMM Pfaudler, InterGlobe Aviation, Jai Corp, Kolte-Patil Developers, Bata India, PFC, Suzlon Energy, Torrent Pharma, Whirlpool, MSTC, MOIL, and Peninsula Land.