Market may open lower on weak Asian stocks

The market may open lower on weak Asian stocks. Trading of S&P CNX Nifty futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates a fall of 13.50 points at the opening bell. IT major, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) unveils FY 2012 results today, 23 April 2012. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) after market hours Friday, 20 April 2012, reported 21.2% fall in net profit to Rs 4236 crore on 16.7% rise in turnover to Rs 87833 crore in Q4 March 2012 over Q4 March 2011. The company reported GRM (gross refining margin), the difference between the price of petroleum products and crude oil, of $7.6 per barrel in Q4 March 2012 compared with GRM of $6.8 per barrel in Q3 December 2011 and $9.2 per barrel in Q4 March 2011. Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL said: "Our businesses have delivered industry leading performances. This is a reflection of the quality of our assets and growing demand for our products and services in India and internationally. We have created a strong foundation for future growth and are investing in our core upstream and petrochemical businesses in India. Response to our organized retail business has been very encouraging and we continue to expand our footprint by building more stores across verticals, formats and geographies. We remain committed towards providing world class, high speed wireless data services through the launch of our broadband access business." Cairn India after market hours on Friday, 20 April 2012, reported 11.04% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 2186.23 crore on 1.37% rise in total income to Rs 3743.61 crore in Q4 March 2012 over Q4 March 2011. Rahul Dhir, managing director and chief executive officer, Cairn India said, "The ONGC-Cairn joint venture has reached a major milestone of achieving 175,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) production from Rajasthan. Positive results of the EOR pilot, re-evaluation of the exploration potential in Rajasthan along with the discovered resource support a basin production potential of 300,000 bopd. We continue to add value and to contribute to our nation's energy security. Last year, we have reduced oil imports by $6 billion and have contributed $2.4 billion to the national exchequer". The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) said that pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories will replace realty major DLF in the benchmark 30-share Sensex. The change will come into effect from 11 June 2012. Bank of Baroda announced after market hours on Friday, 20 April 2012 that in response to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBl) move to reduce the policy rate by 50 basis points (bps) in its Annual Monetary Policy unveiled on 17th April, the bank has decided to reduce its deposit rates by 25 to 50 bps in various maturities and its Base Rate and benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 25 bps each with effect from 1 May 2012 to revive the sagging investment sentiment in the country. With this, the bank's Base rate will be at 10.50% and BPLR at 14.75% from 1 May 2012. Key benchmark indices dropped amid intense volatility on the last trading day of the week on Friday, 20 April 2012, on profit booking after four-day gains. The BSE Sensex lost 129.87 points or 0.74% to 17,373.84. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 314.04 crore on Friday, 20 April 2012, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. The market may remain volatile this week as traders roll over positions from the near-month April 2012 series to May 2012 series. The April 2012 derivatives contracts expire on Thursday, 26 April 2012. Investors are closely watching India Inc's Q4 March 2012 and year ending March 2012 (FY 2012) earnings. Focus is on the guidance provided by the management for the year ending March 2013 (FY 2013) to gauge the earnings outlook. Sesa Goa unveils Q4 results on 24 April 2012. Wipro and Sterlite Industries India unveil their Q4 results on 25 April 2012. ICICI Bank unveils FY 2012 results on 27 April 2012. Axis Bank Jindal Steel & Power and Siemens unveil quarterly results on the same day. Maruti Suzuki India unveils FY 2012 results on 28 April 2012. FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever unveils FY 2012 results on 1 May 2012. Hero MotoCorp announces Q4 results on 2 May 2012. Housing finance major HDFC announces FY 2012 results on 7 May 2012. Ranbaxy Laboratories will declare its Q1 March 2012 results on 9 May 2012. Dr Reddy's Laboratories announces FY 2012 results on 11 May 2012. Bajaj Auto announces FY 2012 results on 17 May 2012. BPCL unveils FY 2012 results on 25 May 2012. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its annual monetary policy for 2012-13 on 17 April 2012 cut repo rate, by a sharper-than-expected 50 basis points to give a boost to flagging economic growth. The RBI, however, warned that there is limited scope for further rate cuts. The RBI left unchanged the cash reserve ratio (CRR), the share of deposits that banks must hold with the central bank, at 4.75%, in line with expectations, after cutting it by 125 basis points since January 2012 to ease tight market liquidity. The RBI said its baseline expectation for GDP growth in the fiscal year that ends in March 2013 is 7.3%, compared with an expected 6.9% in the year ended March 2012. It expects headline inflation to end the year at 6.5%, with little deviation expected during the year. The RBI had raised rates 13 times between March 2010 and October 2011 as it struggled to contain price pressures. Asian stocks edged lower amidst volatility on Monday, 23 April 2012. Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were down by between 0.08% to 0.84%. The Group of 20 nations on Friday pledged $430 billion in new funding to the International Monetary Fund, more than doubling its lending power in a bid to protect the global economy from the euro-zone debt crisis. The promised funds from advanced and emerging economies will provide the global lender with a huge war chest should the sovereign debt problems that have engulfed three euro zone countries spread and threaten a fragile recovery. US stocks settled mixed on Friday amidst better-than-forecast quarterly reports from Microsoft and General Electric.