Markets may open lower on weak Asian cues

Markets are likely to open lower, amid weak Asian cues, with banks and NBFCs in focus after the Reserve Bank of India proposed granting on-tap universal banking licences to individuals, groups or entities and companies.

At 8:30am, the early indicator SGX Nifty was down 43 points at 7,720.


Global Markets

Asian markets were trading with losses with stocks in Hong Kong and Singapore declining the most. Meanwhile, Japanese markets resumed trading on Friday and the benchmark Nikkei was down 0.7%. Hang Seng and Straits Times were down over 1% each while China's Shanghai Composite was trading flat with negative bias.

Stocks on Wall Street pared intra-day gains to end flat in overnight trades as investors turned cautious ahead of the April jobs data due later today. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 9 point at 17,660.71, the broader S&P 500 lost ground for the third straight day to end down 0.49 point down at 2,050.63 and the Nasdaq eased 8.55 points to settle at 4,717.09.


Stocks in focus

Banks and non-banking finance companies will be in focus after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday proposed granting on-tap universal banking licences to individuals, groups or entities and companies.

ITC may see some weakness after the company plans to shut its cigarette factories from May 04, 2016 until the Company is in a position to comply with the mandatory pictorial warnings on packages of tobacco products.

Hero MotoCorp may firm up after the two-wheeler major  posted 71% growth in net profit for the March quarter at Rs 814 crore against Rs 477 crore in the year-ago period.

Bharti Airtel may see some action after the company said it has entered into an agreement with Helios Towers Africa (HTA) for divestment of about 950 towers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Emami is likely to firm after cash profit, however, rose by over 11% at Rs. 166 crore in the March quarter as against Rs. 149 crore in the year-ago period. However, net profit fell by nearly 45% at Rs 76 crore as compared to Rs 138 crore in the same months of 2015 mainly on account of the sharp rise in amortisation of the Kesh King brand.

NDTV may firm after the media company returned to profit after posting Rs 7.5 crore net profit in the March quarter, 2016 after posting Rs 10.7 crore net loss in the same quarter last year.