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

Global markets crumbled on Monday as market participants remained wary of the scope of coronavirus outbreak in China. As such, investors back home are likely to remain cautious in today's session as they assess the impact of the virus on China's and the global economy. Apart from that, corporate results and pre-Budget newsflow will give direction to the markets today.

Investors will first react to major results announced post market hours yesterday. HDFC’s Q3 results beat the Street’s expectations on most operating parameters. The company clocked over 3 times year-on-year jump in its profit before tax to Rs 9,143 crore, while its assets under management grew 14 per cent. One-time gains of Rs 9,019 crore on account of stake sale in Gruh Finance fueled HDFC's profits.

IndiGo airline's parent company, InterGlobe Aviation, reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 496 crore during the December quarter of FY20. On the sales front, IndiGo clocked Rs 10,330 crore during the recently concluded quarter.

Today, a total of 65 companies including Maruti Suzuki, Manappuram Finance, and Century Textile, are scheduled to announce their December quarter results.

Apart from that, investors will also track stock-specific action, oil price movement, and the Rupee's trajectory.

In the global markets, Asian shares slipped again on Tuesday as China took more drastic steps to combat the coronavirus. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.4 per cent lower in early Asian trading on Tuesday. Australian shares stumbled nearly 1 per cent. On Monday, key indexes for British, French and German equity markets slid more than 2 per cent, as did pan-European markets on worries about the potential economic impact from the deadly virus. Stocks on Wall Street fell more than 1 per cent. The SGX Nifty is indicating a flat to negative start for the domestic indices.

In commodities, oil prices slumped a further 2 per cent to multi-month lows on Monday as the rising number of cases of the new China virus and city lockdowns deepened concerns about demand for crude. 

Back home, Sensex dropped to its lowest level in a month yesterday and closed 458 points down at 41,155. Nifty finished with a loss of 129 points at 12,119.