Market Ahead, July 16: Top factors that could guide markets today

The Indian markets may open slightly higher today as indicated by the SGX Nifty which was trading around 10,680 levels, up 35 points at 7:20 AM. 

Reports that an experimental vaccine produced by Moderna Inc showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in volunteers lifted the investor sentiment in the US markets overnight. The Dow Jones rose 0.85 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.91 per cent and the Nasdaq grew 0.59 per cent.

Asian shares, on the other hand, were trading mixed in Thursday's early deals. Australian ASX 200 dipped 0.2 per cent in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.4 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was flat.

In commodities, Brent crude settled up 89 cents, or 2.1%, at $43.79 a barrel.

Besides global cues, investors will today focus on corporate results, other stock-specific developments, and trend in Covid-19 cases. The session might also turn volatile because of the expiry of weekly derivative contracts.

IT services major Infosys yesterday beat Street estimates with an 11.5 per cent YoY rise in net profit which stood at Rs 4,233 crore in the June quarter of FY21, boosted by steady performance in most business verticals and geographies, and healthy order flow. Revenues at Rs 23,665 crore, grew 8.5 per cent YoY basis. 

Among other results, Bandhan Bank reported a 32 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 550 crore for the quarter largely due to additional provisioning of Rs 750 crore made against the material impact of Covid-19 on standard assets.

A total of 22 companies including Cyient and Bajaj Consumer Care are scheduled to announce their quarterly results today.

State Bank of India might trade actively today after its board gave its nod to raise Rs 25,000 crore capital through additional tier-1 and tier-II bonds from the market in FY21. This capital is expected to strengthen capacity to grow business and create buffers to withstand shocks.

Meanwhile, global rating agency Standard and Poors has said that public sector banks in India would need additional capital of Rs 35,000-40,000 crore in the current financial year and barring the SBI and a few large PSBs, most will need capital infusion from the government and government-owned enterprises.

On the Covid-19 front, India has recorded 32,682 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total number of Covid-19 cases to 9.7 lakh, as per Worldometer. The country's death toll has now reached 24,929. 

And now, a quick look at other top headlines:

Crisil has said that Indian airlines are staring at a revenue loss of Rs 1.1-1.3 trillion over three financial years, including the current one, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to visa and travel restrictions, thereby severely affecting aviation industry across the world.

Rossari Biotech received 79.4 times the demand of shares on offer in its IPO, on Wednesday, which was the last day of the issue. The institutional investor portion of the IPO was subscribed more than 85 times, the wealthy investor portion subscribed 240 times, and the retail investor portion garnered 7.2 times subscription.

The country saw a minor trade surplus in June for the first time in 18 years a exports of $21.91 billion and imports of $21.11 billion resulted in a surplus of around $800 million in trade balance.