BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were staring at a positive start on Monday, as suggested by trends on SGX Nifty in early trade. Nifty futures were trading 42.50 points or 0.26 per cent up at 16,702 on the Singaporean Exchange. In the previous session, Sensex rallied 1328.61 points or 2.4 per cent to 55,858.52, while Nifty 50 settled at 16658.40, up 410 points or 2.5 per cent. Asian stock markets were seen trading mixed, while oil futures gained over 4 per cent as investors keenly watch the Russia-Ukraine war and related sanctions. On gthe domestic front, important macroeconomic data such as GDP numbers and Infrastructure output data will release today. Analysts say markets have finally ended the 4-month long consolidation phase and look structurally weak now. “On the index front, Nifty has the next major support around 15,900-16,000 zone. To negate the view, it should reclaim the 17,000 zones decisively and the next major hurdle would be around the 17,300 zones. The prevailing volatility is hard to trade, we thus suggest traders limit positions and wait for some stability,” Ajit Mishra, VP Research. Religare Broking, said.

Stocks to watch

RIL, Future Retail: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd has taken over the operations of at least 200 stores of Future Retail and has offered jobs to its employees after the Kishore Biyani-led group failed to make lease payments to landlords, PTI quoted sources as saying.

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel has invested over $46 billion in creating the digital highway over which 40% of India’s digital activity takes place, and making its network 5G ready. It is also operating one of India’s largest private clouds with a trillion transactions a day on its private cloud infrastructure.

Vodafone Idea, Indus Towers: Bharti Airtel on Friday said it has entered into an arrangement with Vodafone Group to buy the latter’s 4.7% stake in Indus Towers on the condition that funds thus accrued should be pumped into Vodafone Idea (VIL) and simultaneously remitted to Indus to clear VIL’s outstanding dues.

Kalyan Jewellers: Kalyan Jewellers is planning to enter the franchise model in the first half of the next financial year to accelerate expansion mainly in the non-southern India market, according to a top company executive.

Adani Power: Adani Power received a shot in the arm on Friday with the Supreme Court asking Rajasthan’s three state-run distribution companies to pay it “Rs 3,048 crore with interest since 2013” towards the balance amount in the compensation granted for higher fuel costs, within four weeks.

Dhanlaxmi Bank: Dhanlaxmi Bank believes it has turned the corner and is poised for a healthy balance sheet in coming quarters, as it reported growth in the operating profit for the first three quarters of the current fiscal despite a decline in treasury yields.

Religare Enterpises: Religare Finvest (RFL) has defaulted on interest payment to the bond holders due on February 25 due to asset liability mismatch arising out of siphoning and misappropriation of funds by erstwhile promoters of its parent company Religare Enterprises Ltd, a regulatory filing said on Saturday.