The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15.60 points, or 0.04 per cent, at the open to 35,692.62.

“Corporate, retail and MSME credit quality is improving. The risk of fresh slippage is coming down and we are seeing a good amount of recoveries and upgrades.”

Axis Securities sees provisions for the quarter at Rs 1,673 crore, lower than Rs 1,750 crore in the June quarter and Rs 1,700 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Total revenues rose 28 per cent to Rs 372.2 crore in the period under review from Rs 291 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2020. Also, the company has declared am interim dividend Rs 5.60 per share for 2021-22.

Established in 1970, SRF Ltd with an annual turnover of Rs 8,295 crore is a chemical based multi-business entity engaged in the manufacturing of industrial and specialty intermediates.

"During Q2, the sale of cement is 2.71 million tons compared to 2.21 million tons in the corresponding period of the previous year with a growth of 23 per cent. The utilisation rate for Q2 is 74 per cent as against 70 per cent in Q2, based on clinker capacity," the company said in a post-earning statement.

"Gold prices traded higher with spot gold prices at COMEX trading 0.40 per cent up at USD 1,800 per ounce on Monday," HDFC Securities Senior Analyst (Commodities) Tapan Patel said.

“We have made sure that we leave a reasonable amount on the table so that no investor ever feels that they did not get the right deal, should there be volatility in the market.”

“We have stayed away from excessively going down the unit-linked product path because our experience has been that if people do not understand the product well, then they could enter the markets at a high and then be somewhat disappointed.”

Analysts have estimated net interest margin (NIM) to fall in the 3.4-3.5 range. All eyes are on slippages, restructuring and accounts rated BB or below.