Market Ahead, October 14: Top factors that could guide markets today

Wall Street lost ground on Tuesday, with halted Covid-19 vaccine trials and an elusive US stimulus agreement. The Dow fell 0.55 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.63 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1 per cent.

Asian equities were also under pressure early Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong declined 0.2 per cent while Australian ASX 200 index was flat. Consequently, SGX Nifty also came under pressure and was trading 60 points lower at 11,880 points at 7:30 AM, indicating a negative opening for the domestic indices today.

Back home, the Supreme Court will today hear a batch of petitions seeking a waiver of interest on loans during the moratorium period and seeking an extension of the moratorium. Investors will track the court proceedings, with bank stocks being in focus.

On the macro front, WPI inflation for September will be announced later in the day.

A total of 16 companies including Infosys, Tata Elxsi, and Den Networks are scheduled to declare their September quarter earnings today. Infosys is expected to report a strong set of numbers for the quarter, mainly led by the ramp-up of large deal wins. 

Yesterday, Wipro approved a share buyback worth Rs 9,500 crore, having improved its performance in the second quarter of FY21 on several parameters, apart from giving a stronger outlook. In the quarter ended September 30, Wipro reported a net income of Rs 2,484 crore, a growth rate of 3.4 per cent year-on-year. The consolidated revenue of the company, at Rs 15,100 crore, was nearly flat year-on-year while it increased 1.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Bank reported a profit of Rs 119.44 crore in Q2 against Rs 105.91 crore in the corresponding quarter last year while its net interest income increased to Rs 575 crore from Rs 498.7 crore.

On the Covid front, the number of daily new Covid-19 cases continued to decrease in India. With 63,517 new Covid-19 cases registered on Tuesday, the caseload now stands at 72.3 lakh while 1.1 lakh people have died from the virus, according to Worldometer.

And now, a quick look at other top news.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday sharply revised its projection of contraction in India’s GDP for FY21 – from 4.5 per cent earlier to 10.3 per cent – citing the rise in Covid-19 cases. The organisation, however, added that the country’s economy might rebound with an 8.8 per cent growth rate in 2021-22.

IRCTC is likely to trade actively today after the Railways announced that it will operate 392 festival special trains between October 20 and November 30 in view of the upcoming festive season. Being special trains, the fares of these trains will be costlier by 10-30 per cent as compared to the fares of mail or express trains.

An, Competition Commission of India has approved the acquisition of various solar energy assets by a joint venture of Adani Energy and Total Solar. Adani Green Energy Twenty Three Ltd will buy the assets from Adani Green Energy Ltd.