Indian equity markets are likely to open gap-up amid strong global cues. Nifty futures were trading 78 points, or 0.45 per cent, higher at 17,308 on the Singapore Exchange, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Friday. In the previous session, both benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 jumped over 1 per cent and short covering was seen on the day of monthly F&O expiry. “Nifty is holding well above 17,000 mark largely supported by Index heavyweight Reliance. India VIX is trading in a range of 17-21 levels, indicating markets likely to remain in broader range in near term,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Stocks in focus on 29 April, Friday

Reliance Industries (RIL) : The Delhi High Court judge hearing half-a-dozen cases in the Amazon-Future Group dispute on Thursday asked why Reliance Industries could not be made a party to Amazon’s petition accusing Future Retail of alienating its retail assets in favour of Reliance. “Reliance is a beneficiary of this transaction,” Justice C Hari Shankar said, referring to Reliance Projects & Property Management terminating the sub-leases of about 800 Future Group stores. The Reliance Industries unit had in February taken possession of these store sites, citing non-payment of rents totalling about Rs 4,800 crore.

Axis Bank: Axis Bank on Thursday reported a 54% on-year rise in net profit at Rs 4,118 crore compared with Rs 2,677 crore in the same quarter last year, driven by significant fall in provisions and improved asset quality performance for the quarter ended March 2022. The private lender said its net interest income (NII) for the quarter grew 17% on-year to Rs 8,819 crore with credit growth of 15% and deposits growth of 19%. Net interest margin (NIM) for the quarter came in at 3.49%.

Vedanta: Mining major Vedanta reported consolidated net profit or the quarter ended March at Rs 5,799 crore, down 9.84% from Rs 6,432 crore in the same quarter last year. The revenue from operations climbed to Rs 39,342, jumping 41.14% from Rs 27,874 crore in the year ago quarter. The company’s board of directors also approved first interim dividend of Rs 31.5 per equity share for the financial year 2022-23 amounting to Rs 11,710 crore. It reported highest ever quarterly Ebitda of Rs 13,768 crore, up 51% on-year. Net debt during the at quarter Rs 20,979 crore, declined by Rs 6,590 crore since 31 December 2021.

Colgate: Colgate-Palmolive (India) on Thursday said its board has approved the appointment of Prabha Narasimhan, a former senior HUL executive, as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company for five years. Narasimhan’s appointment will be effective from September 1, 2022. In March this year, the company announced appointment of Narasimhan as its Managing Director and CEO. Meanwhile, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) bought 50,000 shares in the company via open market transactions on April 27. With this, LIC’s stake stands at 5.017%, up from 4.999?rlier.

Infosys: On the request of Infosys, the office of the chief labour commissioner (central) has adjourned till the middle of next month the “joint discussion” between National Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) and the tech giant. In a letter written on April 22, the CLC(C) had asked to Infosys group head (human resources) Krish Shankar to attend the discussion either personally or through an authorised representative well conversant with the issue. Before the CLC (C), NITES President H S Saluja alleged that Infosys is restricting employees terminated from employment from the company, using a non-compete agreement clause, in respect of their future employment. “The aforesaid clause has been alleged to be unethical and illegal by the compliant,” the CLC(C) office said in the notice sent to Infosys.

CAMS: CAMSfinserv, a wholly owned subsidiary of Computer Age Management Services Ltd (CAMS), on Thursday said it has collaborated with IT giant Microsoft to develop a robust technology foundation for the Account Aggregator marketplace to accelerate digital transformation in the country. CAMSfinserv and Microsoft would work jointly to empower the Account Aggregator ecosystem by developing the digital capabilities necessary for stake holders and drive inclusive financial growth. Running on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, CAMSfinserv’s Account Aggregator would assure users with stringent commitments on up time and speed of delivery while benefitting from the Microsoft’s industry-aligned solutions.

Q4 Results today: Maruti Suzuki, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement and Wipro to declare results on April 29. Others include SBI Cards and Payment Services, Can Fin Homes, Geojit Financial Services, Gillette India, GNA Axles, Gokaldas Exports, HFCL, Just Dial, L&T Finance Holdings, Lloyds Metals and Energy, RPG Life Sciences, Shriram City Union Finance, Solara Active Pharma Sciences, Sonata Software, Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, Supreme Industries, Tanla Platforms, Tata Chemicals, and Thyrocare Technologies.