Soft opening seen for Sensex, Nifty; RIL, Paytm, SpiceJet, Vodafone Idea, HAL shares eyed

Indian equity benchmarks are poised to start on a subdued note on Tuesday following weak cues from Asian peers and a negative finish at Wall Street overnight ahead of the U.S. central bank’s policy meeting. The negative trends on SGX Nifty also indicated a bearish opening for the domestic bourses, with SGX Nifty futures trading 14 points, or 0.09%, lower at 16,868 on the Singapore Stock Exchange at 8:00 AM.

On Monday, the domestic bourses closed higher for the fifth straight session amid hopes for progress in Russian-Ukraine peace talks. The 30-share Sensex ended 936 points, or 1.68%, higher at 56,486, and the Nifty50, gained 241 points, or 1.45%, to close at 16,871. In the past five trading sessions, Sensex has rallied 3,643 points or 6.89%, with investors' wealth surging by over ₹13.16 lakh crore. On the sectoral front, most of the indices closed in the green zone, led by the bank and information technology (IT) index. IT major Infosys was the biggest gainer on the BSE Sensex pack, followed by HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki India, and Axis Bank, among others.

Stocks to focus

One97 Communications (Paytm): The fintech company has refuted reports claiming that its payments bank arm faced regulatory action as it shared data with Chinese firms. Last week on Friday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had barred Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers with immediate effect, citing certain "material supervisory concerns".

SpiceJet: The low-cost carrier on Monday said it will launch 60 new domestic flights this summer. The summer schedule starts from March 27 and ends on October 29.

Future Enterprises: Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh on Kishore Biyani-led company for violation of disclosure norms pertaining to arbitration proceedings before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).

Reliance Industries (RIL): Reliance New Energy, a subsidiary of RIL, has signed a deal to acquire assets of Lithium Werks BV for $61 million, as it builds technology and material wherewithal for its new energy foray.

Wipro: The IT major has secured a contract from Speira which has operations in Germany and Norway.

Persistent Systems: The technology services company on Monday announced the acquisition of Princeton, New Jersey-based cloud transformation services provider, for $71.71 million (around ₹545 crore).

Vodafone Idea: The telecom major has entered into the online gaming market in partnership with ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Nazara Technologies.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL): The aerospace and defence company has signed a pact with Bengaluru-based company SASMOS to work together on advanced electronics, electrical and fibre optic interconnections in the aerospace domain.

Bank of Baroda: The state-owned lender has teamed up with BNP Paribas to form a joint venture to form ‘Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund’. Bank of Baroda will own a 50.1% stake in the asset management company (AMC), while BNP Paribas Asset Management will hold the remaining 49.9% shares.

Anupam Rasayan India: The company has said Afzal Malkani has resigned from the post of Chief Financial Officer due to personal reasons.

RITES: The state-run company has declared a third interim dividend of ₹7.50 per share. The record date for the payment of dividend has been fixed as March 25.

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

Wall Street ends lower ahead of Fed meet

In the overnight trade, the major U.S. indices closed lower amid sell-off in growth-driven technology stocks ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and widely expected rate hike. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and new virus lockdowns in China also dented market sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.1% higher, the S&P 500 fell 0.74%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.04%.

The Fed will convene its two-day policy meeting starting Tuesday and widely expected to raise interest rates from zero for the first time since 2018. Data last week showed consumer prices surged to the highest in 40 years.

Asian stocks mostly lower, Hang Seng dives 4%

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region opened mostly lower, barring Japan and Singapore, mirroring weakness in Wall Street overnight, amid rate hike concerns and fresh Covid-19 wave in China. The uncertainty about global economic growth amid escalated war between Russia and Ukraine and the prospect of lockdown in parts of China due to rising coronavirus cases also triggered sell-off in the regional market.

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong plunged over 4% in early trade after falling 5% in the previous session. In mainland China, the Shenzhen Component dropped 1%, while the Shanghai composite tumbled more than 2% in opening deals.

South Korea’s KOSPI shed 0.7%, Taiwan's Weighted index dived 1.7%, and Australia’s ASX 200 index slipped 0.57%.

Bucking the trend, Japan’s benchmark index Nikkei 225 traded 0.2% higher, the Straits Times Index in Singapore climbed 0.9%, and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite added 0.3%.

Crude prices retreat further

The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, retreated further on Monday as sentiments were lifted by positive comments from peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. In the overnight trade, Brent futures tumbled 5.1% to settle at $106.90 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped 5.8% to $103.01.

In the early trading hours on Tuesday, the U.S. WTI crude futures dipped 3.7% to $99.22 a barrel, while the Brent oil futures slipped 3.6% to $103 per barrel.

Retail inflation rises to 6.07%, WPI surges to 13.11%

India’s retail inflation continues to remain above the Reserve Bank’s comfort level of 6% for the second consecutive month in February. As per the data released by the statistics department, the consumer price index (CPI) based inflation rate spiked to 6.07% in February.

Meanwhile, wholesale price index (WPI) inflation rose to 13.11% year-on-year in February from 12.96% in January, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday. This is the eleventh straight month in which WPI has been in double digits.

Exports rise 25.1% to $34.57 bn in Feb; trade deficit balloons to $20.88 bn

India's merchandise exports jumped 25.1% year-on-year to $34.57 billion in February while imports soared 36% to $55.45 billion. The country’s trade deficit - the difference between imports and exports - widened to $20.88 billion in February from $17.42 billion in the preceding month, the commerce ministry data released on Monday showed.

Merchandise exports for the period April-February 2021-22 stood at $374.81 billion as against $256.55 billion during the period April-February 2020-21, registering a positive growth of 46.09%, the ministry said.