Markets set to open lower; Kotak Mahindra Bank in focus

The benchmark indexes are set to open marginally lower on Thursday, after gaining for four sessions in a row, with focus on Kotak Mahindra Bank after the Reserve Bank of India barred the lender from taking on new clients digitally.

GIFT Nifty was trading at 22,354.50, as of 08:10 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open below its Wednesday’s close of 22,402.40.

The benchmark Nifty and S&P BSE Sensex indexes rose for a fourth session on Wednesday, gaining about 2 per cent each over the period, helped by easing concerns over escalations in West Asia.

Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank will be in the spotlight after the RBI barred the private lender from taking on new customers through its online and mobile banking channels.

Nifty 50 constituents Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank and LTIMindtree will also be in focus after their results.

While Hindustan Unilever reported a 6 per cent drop in profit, missing estimates, IT company LTI Mindtree posted a smaller-than-expected revenue in the March quarter, hurt by weakness in its banking vertical and client spending.

Axis Bank’s fourth-quarter profit beat estimates.

Meanwhile, Asian markets opened lower, while US equities closed marginally higher.

Investors await first-quarter US gross domestic product (GDP) data due later in the day to assess the US Federal Reserve’s future rate trajectory.

Stocks to watch

Tata Consultancy Services: The company has signed a strategic agreement with Amazon Web Services to accelerate cloud transformation and offer artificial intelligence solutions to customers.

AU Small Finance Bank: The company reported fall in March-quarter net profit.

Macrotech Developers: The company posted fall in consolidate net profit in the fourth quarter.

Key earnings in focus: Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Nestle India, Tech Mahindra.