Soft opening seen for Sensex, Nifty; Airtel, RIL, Future Retail, Sun Pharma shares in focus

Indian equity benchmarks are poised to open lower on Monday, tracking soft cues from Asian peers as investors kept a close eye on the Ukraine crisis. The weak trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a gap-down opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 117 points, or 0.71%, lower at 16,542 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:45 AM.

On Friday, the domestic benchmark indices rebounded strongly as investors resorted to bargain hunting after falling nearly 5% on Thursday following Russia’s full-fledged attack against Ukraine. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed 1,328 points higher at 55,858, while the 50-share Nifty surged 410 points to settle at 16,658. Outperforming the benchmark indices, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices closed with more than 4% gain each. Among individual stocks, barring Nestle India and Hindustan Unilever Ltd, all heavyweights on the BSE Sensex pack closed higher. Tata Steel, the country’s largest steel maker, was the best performer with a 6.54% gain, followed by IndusInd Bank, which ended 5.83% higher.

A relief rally on equity markets on Friday could prove to be short-lived, as investors are likely to remain sidelined amid ongoing conflict between Russia and the Ukraine and its impact on global growth outlook. It will be an action-packed week for Dalal Street as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers for December quarter and Infrastructure Output data for January will be released on February 28. Traders will also keep a track on Manufacturing and Services PMI data, scheduled to be released during the week. Sectorally, auto and cement companies will also release their monthly sales figures during the forthcoming week.

Stocks to watch

Bharti Airtel: The telecom major’s shareholders have given nod to the issue of equity shares to Google on “a preferential basis”. Recently, the U.S.-based tech major announced to buy a 1.28% stake in the Bharti Airtel for $700 million.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise: The multinational hospital chain will replace Indian Oil Corporation Ltd from National Stock Exchange's benchmark index Nifty 50 from March 31.

DLF: Global brokerage firm CLSA has upgraded the stock to 'buy', citing that real estate major’s operations are at a decade's best. The agency, however, cut the price target to Rs 423, from Rs 470 per share earlier, while it also trimmed the realty firm’s FY23 and FY24 revenue estimates by 2% and 5%, respectively.

Future Retail: The retailer has suspended most of its online and offline operations amid reports that rival Reliance plans to take over its flagship supermarkets after it failed to make lease payments. Kishore Biyani-led supermarket chain operator, which owns Big Bazaar, remained shut for the last two days. Future Retail in an exchange filing on Saturday said the company was "scaling down its operations."

Aurobindo, Sun Pharma: The drug makers are recalling certain products in the U.S. market as they failed to meet regulatory norms. As per the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Aurobindo Pharma’s U.S. arm is recalling 1,15,776 bottles of Moxifloxacin Ophthalmic Solution, an antibiotic used in the treatment of bacterial infections. Meanwhile, the U.S. arm of Sun Pharma is bringing back 59,232 bottles of Chlorthalidone tablets, used for reducing excess fluid levels in the body.

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

Wall Street ends higher on Friday

U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday as investors continued to gauge the impact of conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. The market sentiment was lifted after amid reports that Russia was ready to send a delegation to Belarusian capital Minsk for negotiations with Ukraine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.5%, the S&P 500 added 2.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite ended 1.6% higher.

Asian stocks edge lower in early trade

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region traded mostly lower in early deals as investors remained on edge after recent selloffs on escalating Russia-Ukraine tensions.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.3%, South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.1%, and the Straits Times Index in Singapore shed 1.35%.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 0.13%, while Australia’s ASX 200 index rose 0.3%.

In mainland China, the Shenzhen component and the Shanghai composite fell 0.65% and 0.25%, respectively, in early deals.

Brent crude price surged 5%

The crude price surged more than 5% amid report that the U.S. will impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The European Unions and the United Kingdom have already announced similar sanctions.

During the early Asian trading hours on Monday, the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures surged 5% to $96.17 a barrel, while the Brent oil futures rose 4.4% to $98.30 per barrel.

In a separate development, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)) and allies led by Russia, a grouping known as OPEC+, has reportedly lowered its forecast for the 2022 oil market surplus by about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.1 million bpd. Ministers from the OPEC+ nations are slated to meet on March 2 to decide whether to increase output by 400,000 bpd in April.

Equity m-cap hits 7-month low in February

The total equity market capitalisation (m-cap) dipped to seven-month low in February, with the top 10 companies losing a massive amount worth ₹3.3 lakh crore in market valuation last week. The m-cap of BSE-listed companies slipped to ₹249.97 lakh crore in February 2022, hitting the lowest level last seen in July 2021 at ₹235.49 lakh crore. In January, the m-cap stood at ₹264.41 lakh crore.

FPIs pull out ₹35,506 crore in February amid Ukraine crisis

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers in the Indian equity market for the fifth consecutive month amid ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis and global growth concerns. FPIs pulled out ₹35,506 crore from the Indian markets in February.

As per the exchange data available on the NSE, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹4,470.70 crore on February 25, which was compensated by net purchase of shares worth ₹4,318.24 crore by the DIIs.