Pre-Market:Markets may rebound on strong earnings

Markets are likely to open in green tracking positive earnings results and firm Asian cues.

 

Asian markets surged for a third session on Wednesday as investors await for the key U.S. data as well as a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting that some believe might result in a more hawkish policy outlook. SGX Nifty is quoting at 7,754.50 levels down by 15.50 points.

 

Data released early on Wednesday showed Japan's industrial output fell 3.3 percent in June as companies curbed production due to a pile-up in inventories, but manufacturers expect output to rise in the coming months.

 

The Fed's two-day policy meeting will conclude later in the session with central bank officials issuing the policy statement at 2 p.m. (18:00 GMT). The Fed will not be updating its economic forecasts and Chair Janet Yellen will not hold a press conference, keeping investors' focus squarely on the statement.

 

The U.S. central bank is expected to cut its monthly bond-buying program by another $10 billion. With U.S. unemployment dropping over the last few months and inflation firming, some believe the Fed could adjust its wording to suggest its willingness to hike interest rates sooner rather than later as the bank approaches its "full employment" mandate.

 

Stocks to watch:

 

Private life insurer SBI Life Insurance posted a year-on-year rise of 14 per cent in net profit for the first quarter of FY15. The insurer posted a net profit of Rs 241 crore, against Rs 212 crore during the corresponding quarter of last year.

 

Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest cell phone operator, reported a 60.9 per cent jump in net income (net profit) during the April-June quarter at Rs 1,108 crore, backed by a 73.9 per cent jump in mobile data revenue. Its net income was Rs 689 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

 

Ranbaxy, set to be acquired by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 186 crore for the quarter ended June. It had posted a net loss of Rs 524 crore during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

 

Tobacco-to-hospitality major ITC has reported net profit of Rs 2,186.4 crore in the June quarter - a growth of 15.6 per cent compared to Rs 1,891.3 crore in the year-ago period.

 

Consumer electrical and electronics company, V-Guard Industries posted 26 percent rise in net profit during April – June period [Q1] of the current financial year. The company earned a net profit of Rs 22.25 crore as against Rs 17.64 crore in the same period of last financial year. 

 

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) posted a 111 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in consolidated net profit in the first quarter of FY15 on the back of gains from the stake sale of its finance services arm L&T Finance Holdings and Dhamra Port, a joint venture between L&T and Tata Steel.

 

The State Bank of Mysore (SBM) reported a robust 44 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 75 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, compared with Rs 52 crore in the corresponding quarter the last financial year.

 

Bank of Baroda reported a 16.6 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1,362 crore for the financial year's first quarter, ended June, on healthy growth in net interest income (NII).

 

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) posted a strong margin show in the June quarter. Net sales (up 13.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 7,571 crore), Ebitda margin (17.4 per cent, up 119 basis points) and net profit (up 3.7 per cent to Rs 1,057 crore) were much ahead of consensus Bloomberg estimates of Rs 7,424 crore, 16.2 per cent and Rs 967 crore, respectively.