Market Ahead, May 22: Top factors that could guide markets today

Investors will today track the 10 am press conference by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. Besides, global cues, and corporate results will be the other top triggers for the markets today.

The SGX Nifty was pointing to a flat to lower start for the indices today after much of the global markets dipped. US equities pulled back amid the back-and-forth between China and the US over reports that Beijing was set to impose new national security legislation on Hong Kong. The Dow Jones fell 0.4 per cent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.78 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.97 per cent.

Asian shares retreated in Friday's early deals on the US-China tensions. Hong Kong fell 3 per cent while Japan's Nikkei and Australia's ASX were down 0.2 per cent each. In commodities, Brent crude was trading around $35.75 per barrel.

In the results corner, investors will first react to Bajaj Holdings and other results announced post market hours yesterday. Bajaj Holdings Q4 net profit declined 54 per cent YoY to Rs 361 crore while revenue came in at Rs 110 crore.

A total of 25 companies including Alembic Pharmaceuticals, IDFC First Bank, and UPL, are scheduled to announce their March quarter earnings later in the day.

Reliance Industries will one again be in focus after the conglomerate said that KKR would invest Rs 11,367 crore into Jio Platforms for 2.32 per cent equity stake. 

Let's move to updates on Covid-19. With 5,609 cases in a single day, the total coronavirus count in India has risen to 114,478, according to Worldometer data. As many as 3,465 people have died from the disease so far. Globally, over 51 lakh people have been infected by the disease so far.

And now, let's look at some other top developments.

India Ratings has warned that the stress emerging from the severe economic shock caused by steps to contain the pandemic may drive total slippages to Rs 5.5 trillion in FY21. The corporate side may see slippages of Rs 3.4 trillion, and non-corporate side may account for Rs 2.1 trillion, it said.

Globally, the Bank of Japan has kept monetary settings unchanged. In an emergency policy meeting, the central bank also decided to launch a new lending facility that aims to channel more funds to small and midsize businesses suffering from the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic.

China refrained from setting a 2020 GDP growth target and pledged to step up spending and financing to support its economy.

Back home, the government has said will provide one-time partial credit guarantee of up to Rs 10,000 crore to banks for purchase of bonds, commercial papers and pooled assets of NBFCs and HDFCs.

Meanwhile, the Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has suspended fresh subscriptions to its credit-oriented schemes credit risk fund and medium duration fund, in order to avoid dilution of gains for existing investors from the expected recoveries. The barring of subscriptions is effective from today.

Read by: Kanishka Gupta