Sensex, Nifty stare at gap-up opening today; here’s what you should know before the opening bell

The market may move upwards in the near term with more of sector/stock specific actions, but intermittent profit booking should not be ruled out

Headline indices BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 are likely to open higher on Monday following the positive global cues. Market participants will continue to watch auto sales, GDP data, monsoon progress and newsflow related to COVID-19. Broader markets have been outperforming the equity benchmarks from the past few sessions. Analysts expect outperformance of midcaps over large caps to continue over the near term. “The market may move upwards in the near term with more of sector/stock specific actions, but intermittent profit booking should not be ruled out. Gradual cooling in volatility on week on week basis also suggests bullish stance and buy on decline strategy could continue in the market,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

SGX Nifty up 70 pts: SGX Nifty suggested a strong opening for BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 on Monday. Nifty futures were trading 71.15 points or 0.61 per cent up at 11,753.20 on Singaporean Exchange.

RIL-Future Group deal: On Saturday, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries’ subsidiary Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) announced to acquire the Retail & Wholesale Business and the Logistics & Warehousing Business from the Future Group in a mega transaction for Rs 24,713 crore.

Results today: A total of 115 companies including JK Cement, Shree Renuka Sugars, Sadbhav Infrastructure Project, Spandana Sphoorty Financial, among others are scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings today.

GDP data: GDP data for the first quarter for the current fiscal is scheduled to be announced today. Along with this, the National Statistical Office (NSO) will release the infrastructure output data for July. Various rating agencies and industry experts have been forecasting a contraction in GDP as the economy came under nationwide lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic during this period.

Global market: Asian stock markets were seen trading higher on Monday. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.65% while the Shenzhen component gained 0.415%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.9% while the Topix index advanced 1.81%. Wall Street ended higher on Friday with S&P 500 at its sixth record closing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.56 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.67 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.6 per cent.