Investors have turned cautious in the past couple of sessions amid mixed start to the earnings season and growing concerns over economic growth. While the overall trend may dominate investor sentiment, they will track corporate results and stock-specific action today for further cues.
Market participants will first react to the results announced after market hours yesterday. Zee Entertainment posted a 37 per cent year-on-year decline in profit before tax to Rs 510.8 crore for the third quarter, as revenue dipped 5.5 per cent to Rs 2,048.7 crore.
Today, a total of 36 companies, including Asian Paints, Axis Bank, and Larsen & Toubro are scheduled to announce their December quarter results. A stable quarterly performance could be in the offing for private lender Axis Bank, which, analysts say, could report up to 61 per cent year-on-year jump in net profit at Rs 2,705.4 crore for the December quarter.
In stock-specific news, Bharti Airtel will be in focus after the Department of Telecom approved raising of foreign direct investment in the company to 100 per cent from 49 per cent allowed earlier.
On the other hand, a report by Business Standard says, the department will issue notices to telcos for AGR-related dues to be paid by January 24. This comes even as the Supreme court yesterday agreed to list the “modification petition” filed by telcos for “sometime next week”.
Globally, Asian share markets steadied on Wednesday as investors took stock of the spread of a new strain of coronavirus from China and weighed the possible consequences of a global pandemic. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan spent the morning trading either side of flat. Japan's Nikkei was trading flat, as did Korea's Kospi index. Australia's ASX 200 inched 0.3 per cent.
On Wall Street overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell half a percent and the S&P 500 dropped almost a third of a percentage point. The SGX Nifty was also indicating a flat start for domestic indices.
In commodities, oil prices also settled back as traders figured a well-supplied global market would be able to absorb disruptions that have cut Libya’s crude production to a trickle.
Back home, Sensex closed 205.10 points lower at 41,324 on Tuesday while Nifty fell 55 points to 12,170 levels. Going ahead, analysts say that traders should remain cautious unless Nifty surpasses 12,350 while support for the Nifty is seen around 12,100 odd levels. Midcap and Small cap stocks are expected to continue their outperformance.
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