Market Ahead, July 29: Top factors that are likely to guide markets today

Quarterly earnings, global cues, and stock-specific movement will shape the market direction today.

Kansai Nerolac Paints and DLF are among the 71 companies scheduled to declare their June quarter results today. Investors will also react to major results announced on Friday post-market hours and during the weekend.

Improvement in asset quality led ICICI Bank to report a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,514 crore for the June quarter on Saturday, against Rs 4.93 crore profit in the year-ago period.

In today's session, Auto stocks may be in focus after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Saturday cut tax rates on electric vehicles from 12 per cent to 5 per cent, whereas for EV chargers, it was reduced tax from 18 per cent to 5 per cent. The new rates will be effective from August 1.

Globally, all eyes would be on the US Federal Reserve which will begin its two-day policy review on Tuesday. As per a Reuters poll, a quarter-point interest rate cut in July is almost a done deal. Any development on the same would affect investor sentiment, hence shaping the market direction.

Apart from these, market participants will continue to track the progress in monsoon, oil price, and the movement of rupee against the US dollar.

Now, let's see how the Asian markets have started and what they mean for Sensex and Nifty.

Asian shares got off to a cautious start on Monday as markets look forward to a likely cut in the US interest rates this week and whether or not the Federal Reserve signals yet more are in the pipeline. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat in slow trade. Japan’s Nikkei dipped 0.1 per cent. 

As for SGX Nifty, it's indicating a flat to negative start for the domestic indices.

Furthermore, Affle India IPO will open today. The IPO will be the first offer under the new Unified Payment Interface (UPI) mechanism, which was made mandatory for the retail investor category with effect from July 1. To know if you should subscribe to the issue or give it a pass, read our analysis of the company profile and analysts recommendations for the IPO on our website.

We also have a special story on how you can cope with the mid- and small-cap meltdown that started in 2018 but doesn't seem to end even after almost one and half years.

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