Indian equity markets are likely to open on a positive note on Monday as SGX Nifty was up more than 100 points hinting at a gap-up start. Global cues were also suggesting positive momentum building up. “Since the global market event of FED policy and the monthly expiry for our markets is over, the focus would now solely be on the Budget 2022 which is likely to dictate short term trend. Now ahead of this event, our markets have already seen a corrective phase and hence, much of the negativity related to the events already seems to have been factored in. Hence, any positivity hereon could lead to short covering of positions and could lead the markets higher,” said Ruchit Jain, Lead Research, 5paisa.com.

Stocks in focus:

Tata Motors: Tata Motors will announce its financial results for the quarter ended 31 December 2021 today. The automaker is expected to show recovery for Q3FY22 on sequential basis with easing concerns of semiconductor chip shortage and strong volume growth, though on-year performance is likely to remain weak. The company is likely to post loss of over Rs 2,200 crore for the quarter as chip shortage issue hit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) business, against profit of Rs 2,906.5 crore in the corresponding period last financial year, and loss of Rs 4,441.6 crore in September 2021 quarter.

IDFC First Bank: IDFC First Bank on Saturday reported more than two-fold increase in net profit to Rs 281 crore for the quarter ended on December 31, 2021. The private sector lender had reported a net profit of Rs 130 crore for the October-December period of 2020-21. However, total income during the quarter declined to Rs 5,197.79 crore from Rs 4,711.72 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing. The bank’s asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 3.96 per cent of the gross advances as of 31 December against 1.33 per cent by the same period a year ago.

Sun Pharma: Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd will report its earnings today for the quarter ended 31 December 2021. The drug major is expected to report a 10 percent on-year increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,957 crore. Net sales for the quarter are likely to rise 11.5 percent on-year to Rs 9,853 crore for the December quarter. Company’s EBITDA margins are expected to decline 73 basis points to 26.5% due to higher input cost pressures, R&D ramp up and Winlevi cost, according to analysts.

Bharti Airtel: Google on Friday said it will invest $1 billion in Bharti Airtel. Of this, the US giant will invest $700 million (Rs 734 per share) to pick up a 1.28% stake in the country’s second-largest telecom service provider. The rest will be for multi-year plans related to devices and other programmes around digital inclusion. While the partnership will benefit Bharti by way of building extensive offerings that cover a range of Android-enabled devices, and developing a cloud ecosystem; Google through this and earlier partnership with Jio gets access to more than 700 million users in the country.

Britannia Industries: Britannia Industries Ltd on Friday reported a decline of 18.4 per cent in consolidated net profit at Rs 369.18 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021, impacted by rise in prices of raw material inputs. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 452.64 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Company’s total revenue from operations went up 12.93 per cent to Rs 3,574.98 crore during the quarter under review. In the year-ago period, the total revenue was at Rs 3,165.61 crore.

L&T: Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Friday reported a 16.7 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,054.74 crore for the quarter ended December 2021, mainly due to one-off gains in the year-ago period. The engineering major had posted consolidated net profit of Rs 2,466.71 crore in the same quarter of the year 2020.

Q3 Results on January 31: Over 100 companies will release their quarterly earnings on Monday (31 January) including Tata Motors, BPCL, HPCL, Indian Oil Corporation, UPL, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, DLF, Aarti Drugs, ADF Foods, Ajanta Pharma, LT Foods, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Edelweiss Financial Services, Exide Industries, GIC Housing Finance, Housing Development & Infrastructure, Hester Biosciences, Infibeam Avenues, Jindal Saw, KEC International, KPIT Technologies, Krsnaa Diagnostics, Navin Fluorine International, Satin Creditcare Network, Shipping Corporation of India, Suven Life Sciences, UCO Bank, Venus Remedies, and Voltamp Transformers.