Opening Bell: Sensex, Nifty to open in green; Adani Enterprises, Zomato, Marico, PNB Housing, Adani Ports shares in focus

The Indian benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty are poised for a gap-up opening on Friday, tracking firm cues from Asian peers and positive trends in GIFT Nifty futures. Asian stocks surged mirroring strong closing at Wall Street overnight on robust earnings report by tech majors Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms and Microsoft. At 8:20 AM, the GIFT Nifty index was up 49 points, or 0.20%, at 24,443, indicating a positive start for domestic equity markets.

Traders will also react to goods and services tax (GST) collections figures for April, which surged 12.6% year-on-year (YoY) to touch a new all-time high of ₹2.37 lakh. However, escalating geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan may limit market gains.

Among individual stocks, shares of Adani Enterprises , Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone , Indus Towers , Jindal Steel & Power , Eternal (formerly Zomato) , Godrej Agrovet , JSW Infrastructure , Federal Bank , Paras Defence and Space Technologies, and Bandhan Bank will be in focus as they released their Q4 results yesterday. The shares of auto companies will be also also in focus as they unveiled monthly sales figures for April.

On Wednesday, domestic bourses ended continued their lackluster trade for the second straight session, with the BSE benchmark Sensex holding crucial 80,000 level, and the broader NSE Nifty50 hovering around 24,300 mark. At the close, the BSE Sensex was down 46.14 points, or 0.06%, at 80,242, and the NSE Nifty50 slide marginally by 1.75 points, or 0.01%, to 24,334. The top five losers on the Nifty50 were Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Trent, Tata Motors, and State Bank of India, while HDFC Life, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki India, SBI Life, and Sun Pharma were among notable gainers.

Tech stocks propel Wall Street higher

In the overnight trade, U.S. stocks closed higher as robust earnings by tech companies boosted market sentiments. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.52% after Meta Platforms and Microsoft posted strong results for March quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.21% higher and the S&P 500 settled up by 0.63%. The strong rally in tech stocks eased recession fear concerns as U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter while various other weak economic data also indicated fragile condition of the world’s largest economy.

Asian stocks surge on firm cues from U.S. markets

Shares in Asia-Pacific region mostly traded in green on Thursday, tracking positive cues from U.S. markets. The market saw buying amid hopes that weak Q1 GDP data of the U.S. could prompt the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates. Adding to it, strong Q1 results by tech heavyweights Meta and Microsoft also lifted sentiments. The possibility of trade talks between U.S. and China also injected positivity in the market.

Taiwan Weighted index was the best performer in the region with a 1.8% gain, followed by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which added 1.5%. Among others, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite rose up to 0.7%. Singapore’s Straits Times and South Korea’s Kospi were trading flat with marginal gains. Meanwhile, Australia’s ASX 200 index ended 0.78% higher.

Stocks to watch

Q4 results today: Marico, Godrej Properties, Parag Milk Foods, PNB Gilts, R R Kabel, Sanofi Consumer Healthcare India, Archean Chemical Industries, Aether Industries, City Union Bank, Gravita India, Indian Overseas Bank, Jindal Saw, Latent View Analytics, Subex, Sunteck Realty, Tatva Chintan Pharma Chem, and V-Mart Retail will release quarterly earnings today.

PNB Housing Finance : Quality Investment Holdings PCC is looking to exit the company by selling its entire 10.44% stake via block deals.

Bank of India : The board of PSU bank has approved capital raising of up to ₹5,000 crore by issuing Basel-III compliant Tier-I and Tier-II bonds of ₹2,500 crore each during FY26.

NBCC (India) : The company has secured a renovation work order worth ₹95.66 crore from the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service, New Delhi.

JSW Energy : The company's subsidiary, JSW Neo Energy, has signed a an agreement with Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPCL) for the procurement of 1,500 MW / 12,000 MWh of pumped hydro energy storage.

Infosys : The country’s second largest IT company has completed the acquisition of MRE Consulting, a technology and business consulting service provider.

Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services: The company has entered into a deal with Aster DM Healthcare to provide Zaggle Save, an employee expense management and benefits platform.

One MobiKwik Systems: The company's subsidiary, Zaak ePayment Services, has received the certificate of authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online payment aggregator.

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