Global cues, December quarter results, rupee to guide market today

A host of global factors such as concerns over global growth, US government shutdown and US-China trade talks are likely to guide the market movement today. Apart from this, investors are expected to keep tabs on December quarter earnings, movement in rupee and crude oil.

Shares of InterGlobe Aviation will be in focus today as the company posted a 75 per cent YoY fall in its net profit at Rs 190.8 crore for the third quarter (October-December) of FY19 on Wednesday after market hours. 

SGX Nifty

Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX) were trading at 10,876, up 35 points or 0.32 per cent in early trade.

Earnings Today

Nearly 75 companies including Yes Bank, UltraTech Cement, Biocon, Reliance Power, PNB Housing Finance, PVR, Kamdhenu are slated to announce their December quarter results later in the day.

Rupee

The Indian rupee Wednesday snapped its three-day losing streak and settled higher by 11 paise at 71.33 against the US dollar on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.

Global Markets

Asian shares rose on Thursday after Wall Street managed to end higher, but gains were capped by political uncertainty in the United States and worries about weakening global economic growth.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 per cent. Australian shares were 0.1 per cent higher while Japan's Nikkei lost more than 0.3 per cent in early trade.

Wall Street ended slightly higher on Wednesday after a spate of upbeat earnings reports, but lingering concerns about trade tensions and the longest US government shutdown ever limited the advance.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 171.14 points or 0.7 per cent to 24,575.62, the S&P 500 gained 5.8 points or 0.22 per cent to 2,638.7 and the Nasdaq Composite added 5.41 points or 0.08 per cent to 7,025.77.

Oil Prices

In commodity markets, oil prices extended their slide from Wednesday when they slipped as the EU sought to circumvent US trade sanctions against Iran, and on weaker US gasoline prices.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 20 cents, or 0.38 per cent, to $52.42, while Brent crude futures LCOc1 remained untraded.

 

PSBs put Rs 1-trn bad loans on sale as delays plague bankruptcy proceedings

Several public sector banks are planning to sell their bad loans, including those being litigated at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), in order to enter 2019-20 with fewer stressed assets on their books.

Bankruptcy proceedings are going at a slower pace than what the bankers had envisaged and many cases have gone beyond the 270-day timeline set under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) mainly because of litigation.

A senior IDBI Bank executive said, “Bankers are becoming impatient because many big-ticket cases don’t seem to be going anywhere.”

 

Britannia may dislodge HPCL or Bharti Infratel from Nifty 50 index
 

Britannia Industries could soon make its way into the benchmark Nifty 50 index. According to an analysis by ICICI Direct, oil marketer Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) or telecom tower company Bharti Infratel could be excluded from the index to make way for the Wadia group flagship firm.

The free-float market capitalisation of Britannia, a key criterion for inclusion in the index, is much higher than HPCL and Bharti Infratel.

A review of the Nifty indices is slated for next month.

In the past six months, the average free-float market cap of Britannia has been Rs 35,748 crore, while that of HPCL and Bharti Infratel has been Rs 18,060 crore and Rs 22,615 crore, respectively.