Market Ahead, October 21: All you need to know before the opening bell

Global cues and corporate results will be the top triggers for the domestic equity markets. Renewed US stimulus hopes helped Wall Street higher overnight, although wobbles in the tech sector kept a lid on investor sentiment. The Dow Jones was up 0.4 per cent and the S&P 500 was up 0.47 per cent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.33 per cent.

Asian stocks were trading higher on Wednesday  Australian stocks were trading 0.12 per cent higher and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.45 per cent. Hong Kong's index, meanwhile, rose over 1 per cent.

The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty rose 45-odd points to 11,956 levels, indicating a firm start for the Indian indices today.

On the results front, Hindustan Zinc yesterday reported a 6.7 per cent year-on-year drop in net profit to Rs 1,940 crore for the quarter ended on September 30, due to high expenses.  Meanwhile, the company has announced interim dividend of Rs 21.3 per share, amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. 

Mid-size IT services firm Larsen & Toubro Infotech reported a net profit of Rs 457 crore, up 27 per cent year-on-year basis. The company's revenue rose 17 per cent year-on-year to Rs 2,998 crore during the period under review. 

Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, and UltraTech Cement, are among 31 companies set to announce quarterly earnings on October 21.

On the Covid front, India witnessed the addition of 54,522 fresh Covid-19 cases yesterday, taking the total number of cases to 76.4 lakh. India's death toll currently stands at 1.15 lakh.

Besides these, market participants would also eye Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi's address to the investor community at industry body CII's Financial Markets Summit, scheduled later today.

And now, a quick look at other top news

Moody's Investors Service yesterday placed Vedanta Resources Limited's B1 corporate family rating under review for downgrade.

Concurrently, Moody's has placed under review for downgrade the B3 ratings on the senior unsecured bonds issued by Vedanta and those issued by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vedanta Resources Finance.

Equitas Small Finance Bank’s initial public offering was subscribed 40 per cent on Tuesday. The issue has fixed the price band for the IPO at Rs 32-33 per share. At the upper end, the company is valued at 1.26 times its adjusted book value.

And, The Sebi has directed Prabhat Dairy to cooperate with the forensic auditor and deposit over Rs 1,292 crore in a nationalised bank within seven days, till the conclusion of the audit.