Market Ahead, Aug 13: Top factors that could guide markets today

The Indian markets look set for a positive start today on the back of firm global cues. The SGX Nifty was trading 30-odd points higher at 7:15 AM while indicating an open at around 11,330 levels for the Nifty. 

On Wall Street, indices closed higher overnight. .The Dow Jones rose 1 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq added 2.13 per cent. In Asia too, Japan's Nikkei rose 1.67 per cent while South Korea's Kospi ticked up 0.64 per cent. On the other hand, Australia's ASX slipped 0.5 per cent.

Apart from the global cues, corporate results and stock-specific developments will continue to remain the major triggers. Ashok Leyland yesterday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 388.82 crore for the quarter ended June 30, owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Revenue from operations in the quarter significantly declined to Rs 1,486 crore as compared with Rs 6,588 crore in the year-ago period.

Aurobindo Pharma, meanwhile, reported a 22.8 percent YoY rise in consolidated profit at Rs 780.7 crore in the June quarter. Revenue from operations for the quarter increased 8.8 per cent over the year-ago period at Rs 5,924.8 crore, with US formulation business showing a 15.6 percent growth.

Today, a total of 178 companies including Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, and BPCL are scheduled to announce their June quarter results. Analysts expect Hero MotoCorp's Q1 net profit to tumble anywhere in the range of 72-94 per cent on a year-on-year basis, led by massive decline in overall volumes.

Meanwhile, India recorded a spike of 61,252 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, taking its total to 23.95 lakh. With 950 new fatalities in a day, India's death toll has surged past UK's and now stands at 47,138.

As for the UK itself, its economy shrank by a record 20.4 per cent between April and June when the coronavirus lockdown was tightest, the largest contraction reported by any major economy so far, official figures published yesterday showed. The numbers also showed that Britain had entered a recession as it shrank for a second quarter in a row.

And, now, some other top news for the day:

Indiabulls Housing Finance will be in focus today after Sameer Gehlaut stepped down as the company's executive chairman with immediate effect. Former deputy RBI Governor S S Mundra will be the non-executive chairman.

One of the biggest mall developers in the country, Phoenix Mills is looking to float a qualified institutional placement of the company’s shares to raise funds soon, sources have told Business Standard. This will be the first QIP by any real estate developer after Godrej Properties came out with one in June last year and raised Rs 2,100 crore.

Foreign portfolio investment in domestic equities has turned positive for the year as sustained flows over the past four months helped erase the deficit caused by record selling in March and April. In the past four months, $7.5 billion has flowed back into domestic stocks, helping the benchmark indices bounce back more than 40 per cent from their 2020 lows.