Market Ahead Podcast, May 28: Top factors that could guide markets today

After posting a record closing high in Thursday's session, the benchmark Nifty index may attempt to scale a fresh lifetime high on the first day of the June series. A firm trend among Asian stocks and a decline in daily Covid cases might bolster the investor sentiment in today's trade.

In the global markets, US stocks advanced slightly on Thursday, as data showing improvement in the labor market helped bolster expectations in the economic recovery and spurred a minor rotation towards stocks seen as more likely to benefit from the rebound. 

Besides, New York Times reported on Thursday, a day before the White House is expected to unveil its budget proposal, that US President Joe Biden will seek $6 trillion in US federal spending for the 2022 fiscal year, rising to $8.2 trillion by 2031.

Against this backdrop, the Dow Jones rose 0.4 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.11 per cent, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.01 per cent.

The trend was firm in Asia early Friday as well, with Japan's Nikkei ruling 1.9 per cent higher, Australia's ASX200 up 1.2 per cent and South Korea's Kospi up 0.35 per cent. At 7:50 AM, the SGX Nifty traded 61 points up at 15,476, indicating a positive open for the Indian markets.

Back home, India recorded 1.79 lakh fresh coronavirus in the last 24 hours while deaths from the disease rose by 3,558. This comes even as the Centre, on Thursday, directed states and union territories to continue the ongoing Covid-19 guidelines till June 30 and asked them to go for intensive and local containment measures in districts with a high number of cases to check the spread of the deadly disease.

That apart, the 43rd GST council meeting, corporate results, stock-specific action, oil price movement, and the Rupee's trajectory would guide market participants today.

And before we close, here are some of the stocks that may remain in focus:

A total of 96 companies, including Glenmark Pharma, M&M, Nazara Technologies, and V Mart are scheduled to report their Marhc quarter results today.'

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is likely to report a healthy performance for the March quarter of FY21 where analysts expect the utility vehicles and farm equipment major to report up to 330 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit, helped by increase in volume and average selling price (ASPs). However, operating margins are expected to decline amid rise in commodity prices.

Eicher Motors, on Thursday, posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 526.14 crore for the March quarter (Q4FY21), up 73 per cent, from Rs 304 crore logged in the corresponding quarter last year. The auto major's total revenue from operations were at an all-time high of Rs 2,940.3 crore for the quarter under review, up 33 per cent YoY. 

Sun Pharmaceuticals, meanwhile, posted a 124 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit in the fourth quarter of FY21 at Rs 894 crore, mainly on operational efficiencies and a low base in the corresponding quarter last year.

Hester Biosciences on Thursday said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between vaccine maker Bharat Biotech and Gujarat Covid Vaccine Consortium (GCVC) for contract manufacturing the drug substance for Covaxin.