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

The Indian markets are expected to start the September series on a positive note. The SGX Nifty was trading close to 11,615 levels, up around 30 points from Nifty futures' previous close. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell yesterday laid out the new average-inflation strategy that aims for 2 per cent inflation, offsetting below-2 per cent periods with higher inflation "for some time," and to ensure employment doesn't fall short of its maximum level.

Following this, the Dow Jones rose half a per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.17 per cent although the Nasdaq closed 0.34 per cent lower overnight.

In Asia, indices were largely higher. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.2 per cent, Hang Seng gained half a per cent, and Korea's Kospi was up 0.8 per cent although Australian ASX 200 dipped 0.9 per cent.

India yesterday recorded its worst-ever single-day spike of 76,826 coronavirus cases, taking its total to 33.84 lakh, according to Worldometer. The country's death toll stood at 61,694.

On the results front, a total of 81 companies, including Khadi India, and Archies, are scheduled to announce their June quarter results. GMR Infra reported its June quarter results yesterday in which the company's consolidated net loss more than doubled to nearly 834 crore. Meanwhile, GMR said it has decided to separately list its airport business. The company’s board passed a proposal that will see the holding company, GMR Infrastructure, demerge into airport and non-airport entities. The board also approved fund-raising of up to Rs 5,000 crore through issuing securities.

And now, a quick look at other top news.

Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, has made provisions of Rs 16,439 crore for its now closed telecom business. For the fiscal year, the company's consolidated profit after tax has come down to Rs 10,916 crore from Rs 28,463 crore, mainly due to an increase in exceptional items, the company said in an exchange filing. 

The Centre has offered two options to states to compensate them amid inadequate cess collections under the GST regime due to the Covid-19. One was an offer of a special window to states, in consultation with the RBI, to the tune of Rs 95,000 crore at a reasonable interest rate. The other was for states to borrow Rs 2.35 trillion from the market, with the RBI as a facilitator. The Centre would facilitate the borrowing, by talking to the RBI.

Hindustan Aeronautics' Rs 5,000-crore offer for sale yesterday saw oversubscription in the institutional investor segment with bids for 42.6 million shares as against 40.13 million on offer. About 10 million shares reserved for retail investors will be auctioned today.

Business conglomerate Max Group will relist its arm Max India on bourses for shares trading today. Max India had got delisted in June, but has since announced plans to invest Rs 300 crore over the next four years.

And, ICICI Securities believes that the Nifty50 Index may reclaim its all-time high of around 12,400 by March as the V-shaped rally in stocks is likely to continue. The benchmark index has bou­nced more than 50 per cent from its March low, but is still about 7 per cent below its January record close.