Market Ahead, June 17: Top factors that could guide markets today

The Indian markets are expected to open lower today despite firm global cues. The SGX Nifty was trading nearly 60 points lower from yesterday's close amid geo-political tensions between China and India. The Indian Army yesterday said that soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army attacked and killed 20 Indian soldiers, including a colonel, on Monday night in Ladakh's Galwan area. Although the Indian Army has since said that the troops of both the countries have disengaged, investors will continue to track the newsflow on that front and any further escalation is expected to put further pressure on the indices.

Besides, investors will also digest IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath's warning that the IMF will likely forecast a worse contraction in the global economy than previously estimated for 2020 and it sees "profound uncertainty" about the path of recovery. The IMF is due to update its World Economic Outlook on June 24. 

Any up move in the indices today, if it comes, is likely to be on the back of global cues, which stand firm. 

Overnight, the Wall Street advanced on the prospect of additional stimulus and a record jump in retail sales in May. Investor risk appetite was given a further boost by the Trump administration’s anticipated $1 trillion dollar infra package aimed at jump-starting the economy.

Moreover, also helping the bull's cause was a UK-led drug trial which showed low doses of generic steroid drug dexamethasone reduced COVID-19 death rates among the most severe cases.

As a result, the Dow Jones rose 2 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.9 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.75 per cent.

Asian stocks were largely higher on Wednesday. Australian ASX 200 rose 0.2 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.3 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei was down half a per cent.

In commodities, Brent was last trading 1.6 per cent lower at $40.30 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus cases in India shot up over 3.54 lakh while the number of deaths stand near 12,000, according to Worldometer. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will continue his virtual meet with chief ministers today.

Now, news from the results corner

HPCL yesterday posted a consolidated loss before tax of Rs 2,653 crore for the fourth quarter. It attributed the loss to inventory losses and exchange rate fluctuations. Besides, a total of 46 companies including Pidilite Industries, Indrapastha Gas, Cummins India are scheduled to announce their March quarter earnings. 

Investors will today also track the Supreme Court hearing of the plea for the waiver of interest during moratorium.

Aviation related stocks are likely to be in focus today after jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel price was hiked by 16.3 per cent yesterday on the back of firming international oil rates.

And, now, some other top news of the day --

Economic disruption caused by the pandemic has pulled down advance tax collection by 76 per cent in the first quarter. Direct tax collection net of refunds was down 32 per cent as of June 15 over the same period last year. Advance tax collection stood at around Rs 12,000 crore as of June 15 as against Rs 50,000 crore in the same period last month.

French banking major BNP Paribas has decided to shut down its onshore wealth management business having assets under management of $14.5 billion, saying the move is driven by strategic reasons.

Read by Kanishka Gupta