Market Ahead, June 19: Top factors that could guide markets today

The Indian markets look set to open on a flat note today. The SGX Nifty is indicating an open at around 10,030 levels for the Nifty amid mixed global cues. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones fell 0.15 per cent, but the S&P 500 added 0.06 per cent while Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.3 per cent.

Asian stocks were also mixed. Australian ASX200 rose 0.75 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei was flat. South Korea's KOSPI dipped 0.7 per cent, and. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.3 per cent.

In commodities, Brent crude was last up 0.2 per cent at $41.6 per barrel.

Besides, investors will track the India-China standoff related developments while today's all party meeting over the issue will also be on their radar. Coronavirus-related newsflow and stock-specific moves will be the other major triggers.

India added over 13,000 cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking its total to over 3.81 lakh, according to Worldometer. Death toll now stands at 12,604. Sources have told Business Standard that Remdesivir, a potential treatment for Covid-19, is expected to be widely available in the Indian market by the end of this month.

On the results front, Whirlpool of India reported a 26 per cent year-on-year drop in its profit before tax for the March quarter while operating revenue dipped marginally to Rs 1,354 crore. A total of 46 companies, including Punjab National Bank, LIC Housing Finance, and Cadila Healthcare are scheduled to announce their March quarter earnings today.

Now, let's look at some company-specific developments.

Reliance Industries yesterday announced that it sold a 2.32 per cent stake in Jio Platforms to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund for Rs 11,367 crore, taking the cumulative fund raising to about Rs 1.16 trillion in two months. Moreover, sources have told Business Standard that Reliance Industries is closing in on a deal that would see it acquire stakes in some units of Future Group. An agreement on that front could be announced as early as next month.

Tata Motors is also expected to trade actively today after Moody’s downgraded the company's corporate family rating and the senior unsecured instruments rating to B1 from Ba3. The outlook on all ratings have been changed to negative from ratings under review. Moody's cited a sustained deterioration in Tata Motors’ credit profile as the reason for the downgrade.

The retail portion of HDFC AMC's Rs 2,800-crore offer for sale has garnered 82.3 per cent subscription. The share sale however, has sailed through as the institutional investor portion was oversubscribed.

And, in the end, let's go through some other top news.

The Supreme Court will today hear Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund’s appeal to vacate the stay order on unit holders’ e-voting process . Incidentally, the Gujarat High Court will also hear the plea filed by the Sebi on seeking remedy from the single-judge bench stay order of the high court.

The Sebi yesterday said the measures aimed at containing the wild swings in stock prices would continue till July 30. In March, the market regulator had imposed restrictions on short-selling, increased margin requirements, and hiked penalties on violators.

And, investments through participatory notes in the domestic capital market rose to Rs 60,027 crore till May-end, making it the second consecutive monthly increase.  

Read by Kanishka Gupta