Market Ahead Podcast, April 15: Top factors that could guide markets today

Indian markets eye a firm start to Thursday's session as they look to resume trading following a one-day holiday with adjusted SGX Nifty ruling 95 points higher at 14651.50. However, concerns surrounding a record spike in Covid cases could dent market sentiment. Besides, Q4 earnings numbers, cues from global markets and a sharp jump in crude overnight will also influence the market movement.

Volatility is likely to remain high on account of weekly F&O expiry.

Covid-19 continues to create havoc as India recorded fresh 1,99,620 cases in the last 24 hours, just 380 short of the 2,00,000 mark. Meanwhile, Maharashtra, the worst-hit state by the pandemic, on Wednesday, announced curfew-like curbs to contain the spread of the virus which could dampen market sentiment.

Meanwhile, in the overnight session, Wall Street indices closed mixed with the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 falling despite another record intraday high for the latter and big banks’ stellar results on the first day of earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.16%, the S&P 500 lost 0.41% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.99%.

Asian shares too were on the backfoot in early trade today with Japan’s Topix index up 0.5% while the Hang Seng slipped 0.7% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.2%.

In the oil markets, prices were lower on Thursday though held near one-month highs after futures jumped in the previous as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and others upgraded forecasts for oil demand. Brent crude was down by 0.3% at $66.37 a barrel after gaining 4.6% on Wednesday.

Now, a look at the stock-specific triggers that are likely to guide the market today

Wipro and three other firms are slated to post their March quarter numbers today. Most brokerages expect Wipro's net profit to rise between 23-30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) but the figure could contract on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis.

Infosys posted a 17.5 per cent jump in net profit for the March quarter on YoY basis, even though it was down 2.3 per cent sequentially. Infosys’s board also approved a share buyback of up to Rs 9,200 crore. The buyback will be done from the open market and the price per share will not exceed Rs 1,750.

The board of Aditya Birla Capital has approved an initial public offer of its asset management business, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, according to a filing with stock exchanges.

HDFC Bank said it is planning to raise up to Rs 50,000 crore during the next 12 months through issuing bonds.

Tata Motors on Wednesday said its group's global wholesales, including Jaguar Land Rover, increased 43 per cent YoY to 3,30,125 units in the fourth quarter of 2020-21 fiscal.