Sensex, Nifty to slide; L&T, Tata Steel, NTPC, U GRO Capital, MakeMyTrip, Nazara Tech shares eyed

Indian equity benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, are poised to open lower on Wednesday, following weak cues from Asian peers and a negative finish at Wall Street overnight. The bearish trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-down opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 178 points, or 0.1%, lower at 17,843 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:00 AM.

The prospect of more aggressive policy actions by the U.S. central bank and talks of new sanctions against Russia may also dent market sentiments. Investors will also keep a close eye on the Reserve Bank monetary policy meeting, which will start today.

On Tuesday, Indian benchmark indices ended lower, snapping two sessions gaining streak, as investors booked profits in banking and financial stocks ahead of the Reserve Bank’s upcoming policy announcement later this week. The 30-share Sensex ended 435.24 points, or 0.72%, lower at 60,176. Similarly, the NSE Nifty dropped 96 points, or 0.53%, to 17,957.40. The top losers on the BSE Sensex pack were HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, Kotak Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, and Reliance Industries. On the gaining side, NTPC, PowerGrid, ITC, Titan, TCS, and Nestle India topped the chart.

Stocks to focus

Larsen & Toubro (L&T): The engineering major said that its transportation infrastructure arm has bagged various orders from prestigious clients. The company did not provide the value of the contracts, but said the orders fall under the "significant" category, which ranges between ₹1,000 crore and ₹2,500 crore according to the classification of contracts.

Lupin: The drugmaker has signed a licensing deal with Alvion Pharmaceuticals to commercialise medicines for cardiometabolic diseases in Southeast Asia.

U GRO Capital: The non-banking financial company on Tuesday announced the opening of a public issue of bonds later this week to raise up to ₹100 crore. The offer will open on April 7 with a base issue size of ₹50 crore, with an option to retain over-subscription up to ₹50 crore.

NTPC: The state-owned power utility company has signed a deal with Gujarat Gas for an initiative to blend green hydrogen with the piped natural gas (PNG) supplied by the latter.

SBI Cards & Payments Services: Private equity firm Carlyle Group sold 2.78% shares in SBI Cards & Payments Services for ₹2,229.3 crore via block deals. CA Rover Holdings, a Carlyle entity, held 29.20 million shares or a 3.09% stake in the credit card company as of December 2021 quarter.

MakeMyTrip: The online travel company said that its fintech arm TripMoney has acquired a majority stake in online foreign currency exchange services provider BookMyForex to become a one-stop solution for all forex needs.

Torrent Power: The energy company has raised ₹600 crore through the issuance of 6,000 non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on a private placement basis.

Nazara Technologies: Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed gaming and sports media firm has announced an investment of $2.5 million in the US based game fund Bitkraft Ventures.

Tata Steel: The country’s largest steel maker saw its consolidated steel output dropping by 3% year-on-year to 7.57 million tonnes (MT) during the quarter ended March 31, 2022. The total sales, however, rose by over 4% to 7.82 MT in Q4FY22, from 7.51 MT in the year-ago period.

Poonawalla Fincorp: The financial services company’s assets under management (AUM) rose by 17% to ₹16,575 crore in the financial year ended March 2022.

Bandhan Bank: The private lender said that its loans and advances grew 16% year-on-year at ₹1,01,359 crore at the end of March 31, 2022, while its total deposits increased to ₹96,331 crore year-on-year at the end of March quarter of 2022. The overall collection efficiency ratio (CER) of the bank improved to 96% at the end of financial year 2021-22.

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

Wall Street falls on concerns over hawkish Fed

In the overnight trade, all three major U.S. indices ended lower, weighed down by losses in growth-driven technology stocks as Federal Reserve official stoked fears of a more aggressive policy stance. The Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said she expects a rapid increase in the interest rate and a cut in the Fed's balance sheet to control inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.8%, the S&P 500 fell 1.26%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended 2.26% lower.

Asian stocks follow Wall Street lower

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region traded mostly lower on Wednesday, following a negative finish at Wall Street overnight amid rate hike fears and a rise in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield. The persistent concerns about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and report of fresh sanctions against Moscow also injected negativity in the regional markets.

Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 slumped 1.9%, South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 0.9%, and Taiwan’s Weighted index fell 1%. Hong Kong's benchmark index, the Hang Seng, traded 1.8% lower.

The Straits Times Index in Singapore slipped 0.6%, Australia’s ASX 200 index shed 0.8%, and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite traded marginally lower.

In mainland China, the Shenzhen Component and the Shanghai Composite were down 0.9% and 0.4%, respectively.

Oil prices retreat on demand woes

The price of Brent and U.S. crude oil retreated amid concerns that new coronavirus cases may impact fuel demand globally. However, looming fear about supply concerns in the backdrop of reports of fresh sanctions on Russia limited the slide in oil prices.

In the Asian trading hours on Wednesday, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 0.15% at $101.85 a barrel, while the Brent oil futures fell 0.06% to $106.58 per barrel. In the overnight trade, Brent futures tumbled 0.8% to $106.64 a barrel, while the U.S. WTI dived 1.3% to settle at $101.96.

Meanwhile, domestic oil companies again hiked petrol and diesel prices by 80 paise a litre on Wednesday, taking the overall increase in rates to ₹10 per litre in 16 days. This was the 14th hike in fuel rates by the state-run oil companies since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.

FIIs, DIIs continue buying spree

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued their buying spree in the Indian equity market on April 5. As per the exchange data, FIIs purchased shares worth ₹374.9 crore, while DIIs net brought shares worth ₹ 105.4 crore.