MARKET LIVE: SGX Nifty trends suggest a negative start for Indian indices

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April 20, 2020

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai. (Photo: Bloomberg/ Dhiraj Singh)

Indian equity indices will today track global cues, trend in coronavirus cases, and corporate results for stock-specific moves. Partial economic activity is set to resume is certain parts of the country as India eases restrictions on lockdown from today whilethe Centre’s new guidelines on foreign direct investment may also impact sentiment.

The Street will also react to HDFC Bank’s Q4 numbers. The private sector lender reported a 2.5 per cent growth in its pre-tax profit at Rs 9,174.3 crore in the March quarter as it doubled its provisioning and contingencies in light of the Covid-19 crisis. READ MORE

RESULT TODAY

Infosys is scheduled to come out with its Q4 numbers and analysts are penciling in a 1 per cent QoQ hit in its revenue growth in constant currency terms for the quarter due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 lockdown. READ MORE

GLOBAL CUES

Investors turned cautious in Asia in Monday’s early trade. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.2 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.3 per cent and South Korea was down 0.1 per cent.

In commodities, the oil market continues to remain under pressure as the global lockdown saw fuel demand evaporate. On Sunday evening, US May futures contract fell 7 per cent to $16.96 a barrel, a level not seen since November 2001. Brent crude futures was off 32 cents at $27.75 a barrel.