Market Ahead, October 15: All you need to know before the opening bell

Let's start with the global cues. On Wall Street, the Dow fell 0.58 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.66 per cent and the Nasdaq dropped 0.8 per cent as hopes of US fiscal stimulus before the presidential election faded.

Asian markets were off to a mixed start on Thursday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4 per cent, while Hong Kong's index and Korea's Kospi were both down 0.9 per cent. On the other hand, Australia's ASX 200 was up 0.6 per cent. SGX Nifty was also trading 30 odd points higher at 7:30AM, indicating a positive opening for the domestic indices, with Nifty knocking on the 12,000-mark.

Back home, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the centre should implement "as soon as possible" interest waiver on loans of up to Rs 2 crore under the RBI moratorium scheme. Bank stocks today might react favourably to the court's order. The top court has now posted the matter for hearing on November 2.

Besides, India's second largest IT services company Infosys yesterday delivered a healthy set of numbers in the second quarter of FY21. The company’s net profit jumped 20.5 per cent over the corresponding period in the previous financial year to Rs 4,845 crore and the revenue at Rs 24,570 crore grew 8.6 per cent year-on-year. Infosys has also guided for strong revenue growth in a seasonally weak third quarter and revise the margin guidance.

Cable and broadband services provider Den Networks reported a 61.41 per cent year-on-year decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 36.77 crore in the second quarter while Tata Elxsi's Q2FY21 profit came in at Rs 78.9 crore as compared to Rs 49.8 crore reported in the year-ago quarter.

Today, a total of 15 companies including Mindtree, South Indian Bank, and Cyient are scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings.

On the Covid front, India on Wednesday registered a spike of 67,988 new Covid cases, taking the total count to 7,305,070, and the death toll reached 111,311. Multiplexes, cinema halls and theatres will reopen from today within the framework of a SOPs.

Oil and gas pipeline infrastructure service provider Likhitha Infrastructure will list its shares on bourses today, with the final issue price fixed at Rs 120 per share. Overall, the issue was subscribed 9.51 times, and analysts expect the issue to see a muted listing.

And, the board of directors at Lakshmi Vilas Bank are set to meet today to firm up on a rights issue amounting to up to Rs 1,000 crore. Deliberations on the proposed merger with Clix Group may also be an agenda.