Market Ahead, October 16: Top factors that could guide markets today

The Indian markets plunged over 2 and half per cent in yesterday's session amid a global sell-off. Today, however, the SGX Nifty is indicating a positive start for the indices at 11,750-odd levels, up 60 points although global cues continue to remain weak to mixed.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones fell 0.07 per cent, the S&P 500 0.15 per cent and the Nasdaq dropped 0.47 per cent as investors feared that a resurgence in coronavirus cases and a lack of additional US fiscal stimulus would hobble the world economy.

Asian stocks also came under pressure on Friday with Australia's ASX 200 and Japan's Nikkei down 0.06 per cent each. Korea's Kospi dipped 0.3 per cent. However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.4 per cent in early deals.

Back home, given the volatility in the markets, investors might focus on stock-specific approach, while also tracking corporate results, Rupee's trajectory and Covid-related newsflow. 

On the results front, IT services firm Mindtree yesterday posted a net profit of Rs 254 crore, a jump of 88 per cent year-on-year, in the September quarter of FY21. A cost-saving of around Rs 128 crore in other expenses helped the firm beat estimates, apart from operational efficiencies.

A total of six companies, including HCL Tech, Bajaj Consumer Care, and Federal Bank are scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings today. Moreover, 11 other companies, including HDFC Bank, are scheduled to announce their numbers on Saturday.

Like its peers, Infosys and TCS, HCL Tech is also expected to report healthy numbers for the quarter under review especially since in a mid-quarter update, the company's management had said that the revenue and the operating margin for the July-September quarter were expected to be meaningfully better than the top end of the guidance it had provided in July’2020.

Meanwhile, HDFC Bank is expected to report a sub-20 per cent YoY growth in net profit for the third consecutive quarter.

On Thursday, India registered a rise of 60,439 new Covid cases, taking the total count to 73.65 lakh, according to worldometer. The death toll, meanwhile, reached 1.12 lakh.

IT firm Persistent Systems might trade actively today after the company announced that it will acquire Palo Alto-based Capiot.

And now a quick look at other top news.

Equitas Small Finance Bank has fixed the price band for its over Rs 500 crore IPO at Rs 32-Rs 33 per equity share. The offer opens on October 20 and closes on October 22.

After contracting for six straight months, India’s exports rose 6 per cent to $27.58 billion in September on account of growth in shipments of drugs and pharmaceuticals and readymade garments. Exports stood at $26.02 billion in September 2019. The country's imports, meanwhile, declined 20 per cent to $30.31 billion in September.