Markets close higher led by IT stocks; what should investors do on Thursday?

Indian benchmark share indices ended higher on Wednesday, bucking the broad-based global trend, boosted by IT stocks as investors awaited June quarter earnings of IT major Infosys. The BSE Sensex climbed 134.32 points to 52,904.05, while the Nifty50 rose 41.60 points to 15,854.

Broader markets were also in line with the benchmarks with the Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices up 0.4%

L&T, Adani Ports, Wipro and HCL Tech were among other blue-chip top performers. On the other hand, ICICI Bank was the top laggard, down 0.65 per cent. UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Eicher Motor were among other losers.

The initial public offering of Zomato got fully subscribed on the first day of the offer. The public offer received bids for 74,90,59,155 shares till 4.35 pm (IST) against 71,92,33,522 shares offered by the food delivery firm, indicating an oversubscription by 1.04 times.

The retail investors are at the forefront as the portion reserved for them is subscribed 2.62 times, while non-institutional investors have put in bids for 11 percent against their reserved portion.

The portion set aside for employees is subscribed 17 percent and that of qualified institutional buyers 84 percent.

Markets will react to Infosys numbers first. The company reported higher profit at Rs 5,195 crore in Q1FY22 against Rs 5,076 crore in Q4FY21. Revenue rose to Rs 27,896 crore from Rs 26,311 crore QoQ.

L&T Technology Services too reported Q1 earnings. The company reported higher profit at Rs 216.2 crore in Q1FY22 against Rs 194.5 crore in Q4FY21; revenue rose to Rs 1,518.4 crore from Rs 1,440.5 crore QoQ.

Here’s how experts see markets trading on Thursday

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services

Despite negative global signals, domestic indices trimmed their early losses and soared high supported by robust Q1FY22 result expectations on the IT sector and favourable economic outcomes.

WPI inflation eased to 12.07 percent for June against 12.94 percent in May owing to softening crude oil and food prices.

Key economic data reported across major western markets shown spiked inflation, forcing global markets to stay sidelined.

US inflation level for June witnessed its highest jump since August 2008 to 5.4 percent while British inflation rose to 2.5 percent, both above the central bank inflation target