)
Here are a few stocks that are likely to be in focus today:
Bharti Airtel will react after reporting 30.5% growth in net profit at Rs 1,255 crore for the quarter ended March this year, owing to growth in data revenue.
Idea Cellular is likely to firm up after its consolidated profit after tax increased 60% to Rs 942 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2015 against Rs 589.8 crore for the same quarter March 2014.
Mortgage lender HDFC and private banking major Axis Bank will be in focus ahead of their March quarter earnings later.
Reliance Power may see some action on reports that it has walked out of the Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand, citing delay in land acquisition.
Godrej Consumer Products may see some pressure after reporting lower-than-expected earnings for the quarter ended March this year. Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 266 crore against Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 274 crore.
Natco Pharma may extend gains on reports that Mylan rejected Teva's $40 billion takeover bid.
Nirlon may see some action on media reports that Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC is acquiring 63.9% stake in the Mumbai-based realty firm Nirlon Ltd for Rs 1,280 crore.
Tata Steel is likely to be in action on reports that British trade unions have sent a
legal notice to Tata Steel to ballot some 17,000 employees for a proposed industrial action over a pension row.
Marico Kaya may react after it reported subdued earnings for the March quarter. Consolidated Net profit was lower at Rs 7.17 crore compared with Rs 12.08 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
Kalpataru Power may firm up after the company announced that it has received new orders worth Rs 765 crore.
MARKET COMMENTARY
Markets are likely to remain volatile ahead of the April derivative contracts tomorrow. Asian stock markets were trading with marginal losses on profit booking after recent gains which pushed benchmark indices to multi-year highs. Further,
investors were also cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve two-day policy meet which ends later today. Japanese markets were closed today. The Shanghai Composite was down 1% while Hang Seng eased 0.4% and Straits Times slipped 0.3%.
Major US share indices ended mixed with the Nasdaq ending flat with negative bias after Apple shares lost ground and ended 1.6% lower. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average and the broader S&P 500 ended higher led by gains in global pharma major Merck and IT major IBM. The Dow Jones gained 72 points to end at 18,110.14, the S&P 500 ended up 6 points at 2,114.76 and the Nasdaq eased 5 points to close at 5,055.42.
