The domestic equity market this week will be guided mainly by quarterly earnings data of some of the marquee names, while coronavirus-related updates and global trends will also be closely tracked by investors. The benchmark indices ended the last week down over 1 per cent after witnessing gains in the previous two weeks in a row.
In terms of the quarterly earnings, a total of 171 companies including Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Auto, Nestle India, YES Bank, and Tech Mahindra are scheduled to announce their September quarter results.
But first, investors will react to the quarterly results of HDFC Bank announced over the weekend. India's largest private sector lender reported a healthy September quarter result with its net profit rising by 18.4 per cent to Rs 7,513 crore on substantial growth in interest earnings and other income. The gross NPAs declined to 1.08 per cent, while the net NPAs were at 0.17 per cent in September 2020.
On the Covid front, India's daily cases continued to come down, with the country reporting 55,511 new cases on Sunday. The case tally now stands at 75.4 lakh with 1.14 lakh deaths. Meanwhile, a government-appointed Covid-19 Supermodel Committee has said that Covid-19 infections peaked in September in India and if all precautions are followed, the pandemic may run its course by early next year.
Besides this, market participants might remain cautious ahead of the US presidential elections in the first week of November and hence keep themselves to stock-specific moves.
They will also track the foreign fund flows to gauge the investment trend of the major players. Last week, FIIs net bought Rs 1,186 crore worth of shares while domestic institutional investors net sold Rs 2,389 crore of selling in the previous week.
Besides, the Rupee's trajectory, and oil price movement will also be on investors' radar.
There's some more activity in the primary market. Equitas Small Finance Bank will open its initial public offering for subscription for three days, starting October 20, with a price band at Rs 32-33 per share. The company plans to raise Rs 517.6 crore via the issue which consists of a fresh issue of Rs 280 crore and an offer for sale of 7.2 crore equity shares by promoter Equitas Holdings.
And, in the end, let's look at the global cues for today.
Asian markets started higher on Monday, buoyed by hopes of a US fiscal package before the US presidential elections next month. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.26 per cent for its second straight day of gains. Japan's Nikkei climbed about 1 per cent while South Korea's KOSPI and Australian shares were up 0.7 per cent each.
On Friday, the Dow Jones rose 0.39 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.01 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.36 per cent on Wall Street.