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

The Indian markets may open flat to positive in today's session, amid mixed global trends. At 7:30 AM, the SGX Nifty was trading around 11,460 levels as compared to Nifty Futures' previous close of 11,451.

In the overnight trade, The Dow Jones closed up 1.18 per cent and the S&P 500 rose 1.2 per cent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 1.87 per cent. Asian shares, though, opened flat to lower on Tuesday as investors shifted focus to upcoming data and central bank meetings.The US Federal Reserve will start its two-day policy meeting later today, the first since unveiling a landmark shift to a more tolerant stance on inflation in August

Australia’s ASX 200 as well as Hong Kong's Hang Seng index were trading flat, while Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.8 per cent. Overall, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ended up 1.06%.

Back home, India's retail inflation softened slightly to 6.69 per cent in August, even as food prices continued to rule high. The combined food price inflation came in at 9.05 per cent, according to the CPI data. Apart from this, investors today will focus on stock-specific moves and corporate results while also keeping track of the newsflow regarding Covid-19 as well as on the India-China front.

Domestic steel major SAIL on Monday posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,226.47 crore for the June quarter, mainly on account of reduced income. Apollo Hospitals also posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 208 crore during the June quarter as compared to a profit of Rs 57.2 crore, last year. The stocks of both the companies will react in today's session.

Besides, a total of 642 companies including Vedanta, SpiceJet, and Future Enterprises are scheduled to announce their earnings today.

On the Covid front, India added 81,811 new cases yesterday, taking the case tally to 49.26 lakh. The death toll tally has meanwhile reached 80,808.

And now a quick look at other top news

The RBI has pulled up banks for delay in automating the process of identifying NPAs, provisioning, and filing returns with the banking regulator. It has asked the banks to comply with the guidelines by June 30, 2021.

Indiabulls Housing Finance yesterday said it has raised about Rs 1,205 crore over the last few days through its QIP and partial stake sale in UK-based OakNorth Bank. The NBFC has raised Rs 682.87 crore through the QIP and Rs 522 crore from the partial stake sale.

And, ICICI Bank yesterday said it has got exemption from paring stake in its life and non-life subsidiaries to 30 per cent for a period of three years.