ETMarkets Morning Podcast: What will sway your market today?

Good Morning, dear ETMarkets readers. This is Saloni Goel, and I am here with the morning briefing of news, views and cues before you start your day on Dalal Street.

US Fed's rate-setting decision later in the day, Thursday's F&O expiry and a set of poor earnings numbers for June quarter are likely to keep the domestic stock market choppy below the 10,000 level on Wednesday.

Tuesday was a day of celebrations for the domestic equity market, as the Nifty50 claimed the much-awaited 10,000 mark for the first time ever.

The BSE Sensex hit a fresh record high of 32,374 while the Nifty hogged spotlight at 10,011 in opening trade, but soon the market turned choppy and ended the day flat.

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index gained 86 points to settle at 15,312 while the BSE Smallcap index rose 18 points to end at 16,054.

The Nifty50 formed a Bearish Belt Hold pattern on the daily chart. Technical analysts believe it might not be a smooth ride for the index from here on. With F&O expiry around the corner, a sustained move above the 10,050 mark could open the gates for a run towards 10,410, which would be an extension of the recent breakout on the weekly chart.

Analysts say if the index breaks below 9,800, it may test the 9,700 level.

Ahead of Thursday's expiry, marketwide rollover of F&O contracts stood at 37 per cent till Tuesday, which was a tad lower than the average rollovers of 38 per cent seen on the comparable day in the last three series.

Nifty rollovers stood at 38 per cent, which were lower compared to the average rollovers of 43 per cent in the last three series.

On Wednesday morning, Nifty50 futures on the Singapore Stock Exchange were trading 2.50 points higher at 9,979, indicating a flat opening for the domestic market.

Elsewhere, Asian markets were trading mixed this morning. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, rose 0.1 per cent, drawing support after the S&P500 index climbed to an all-time high overnight on well-received results from McDonald's and Caterpillar in addition to the gains in bank shares.

South Korea's Kospi stood little changed and Australian stocks rose 0.9 per cent. Japan's Nikkei added 0.8 per cent after the dollar extended an overnight rally against the yen to pull away from seven-week lows.

In overnight trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose half a per cent to 21,613, while the S&P500 index advanced 7.17 points to 2,477 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.37 points to 6,412.

Ahead of Fed rate-setting decision, concerns kept on lingering over when the Fed will start winding down its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. Wednesday's policy outcome may shed some light. Going by the outcome of recent Reuters poll of economists, Fed can chart a direction only in September policy review.

In quarterly earnings, mortgage lender HDFC and Federal Bank, NBFCs Bharat Financial, Muthoot Finance and L&T Finance, FMCG major Nestle India and a couple of entertainment companies such as PVR and Inox Leisure will announce their numbers on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Bharti Airtel reported a 75% slump in quarterly profit to the lowest level in four-and-a-half years as its voice and data businesses continued to suffer from the price war triggered by Reliance Jio Infocomm's dirt cheap offerings.

Axis Bank reported a smaller-than-expected 16 percent drop in quarterly profit and said it was making progress on containing bad loans. Hero MotoCorp posted a 3.5 per cent increase in quarterly profit, in line with expectations, helped by higher sales volumes.

Vedanta, the Indian unit of diversified energy group Vedanta Resources, reported a doubling of quarterly consolidated profit, as higher zinc prices helped the company to reap improved margins.

In other news, Sebi is planning to make it mandatory for listed companies to inform stock exchanges if they fail to make interest and loan instalment payments on time in order to ensure greater fiscal discipline and keep shareholders better informed.

The regulator is considering the timeframe within which the information has to be declared to the stock exchanges, said people with knowledge of the plan.

Lastly, a quick look at some of the interesting headlines from the print edition of ETMarkets.

Nifty's going past the five figure-mark is likely to attract many new investors to the markets, while the existing ones would look at reviewing their portfolios.

Many new investors would consider routing their money into equities for the first time. At this juncture, wealth managers believe the challenge lies in managing the behaviour and expectations of first-time investors who are moving from fixed return products to variable return instruments.

Vedanta is betting on a firming up of global aluminium and zinc markets and ramping up capacity to power its growth in the coming quarters, barring any major global economic shock, Tom Albanese, Group CEO said. Mine closures over last two years and the closure of capacity to curb pollution in China have contributed to tighter supply, demand conditions globally.

For about 250 key employees at Max Life, the failed merger with HDFC Life means an intensely personal setback. Their retention bonuses -- neat little windfall kitties announced a year ago ahead of the alliance -- would remain pipedreams if the two insurers fail to walk down the aisle.

We would leave you with that much for now.

Do log on to www.etmarkets.com through the day for continuous updates on every development in the financial markets.

Have a good trading day ahead!