Market Ahead, May 13: Top Factors That Could Guide Markets Today

The big focal point for the markets today will be the fiscal stimulus of Rs 20 trillion announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last evening. The prime minister also gave away that the nationwide lockdown would be extended beyond May 17 although it would be very different from what we have seen so far, he said. The details of both the package and the next phase of the lockdown would be unveiled during the week, but the PM did say the package would cater to various sections, including the cottage industry, MSMEs, labourers, and middle class.

The SGX Nifty shot up to 9,600 levels immediately after the PM's speech but has since receded to 9,400 levels largely due to the weak trend in other global indices. And yet, an open around 9,400 levels, which seems most likely, would still be a gap-up start for the Indian indices today.

Overnight, Wall Street's three major averages lost around 2 per cent each after top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci warned that premature moves to reopen the nation’s economy could lead to novel coronavirus outbreaks.

Asian equities also declined on Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.9 per cent, Australian ASX 200 was down 1.4 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipped 1.12 per cent. In commodity markets, Brent crude dipped nearly 2 per cent to $29.42 per barrel.

Back home, investors will today also digest the industrial production data which witnessed its biggest drop yet with output crashing by 16.7 per cent in March as factories downed shutters towards the month-end owing to the Covid-19-induced nationwide lockdown.

Moreover, the Centre did not give the general CPI number this time, citing difficulties in collecting data due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It however, released data for certain sub-groups which show clear trends of price rise compared to March.

Market participants will also react to corporate results announced post market hours yesterday one of which was from Nestle India which reported a flat growth in profit before tax at Rs 704 crore for the quarter ended March 31. Revenue for the quarter grew 10.7 per cent YoY to Rs 3,325 crore while profit after tax grew 13.4 per cent to Rs 525 crore.

Today, a total of 10 companies, including Maruti Suzuki India, MPhasis, and ABB are scheduled to announce their results.

Vedanta's stock will be in focus today after the firm said it would voluntarily delist from the BSE and the NSE. The promoter company Vedanta Resources would acquire all fully paid-up equity shares that are held by public shareholders at the rate of Rs 87.5 per share.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Union commerce and ministry is evaluating a tax holiday proposal for companies that make more than $500 million worth of new investments. 

And in the end, India's coronavirus cases rose to 74,243 as of Tuesday and death toll hit 2,415, according to Worldometer. Globally, over 43 lakh people have been infected so far.

Read by: Kanishka Gupta