Markets Ahead

The upcoming general elections in April/May 2024 are expected to add volatility to the Indian markets, keeping investors on their toes

Amarjeet Singh says 16 working groups looking to simplify regulations

Ebitda margin stood at 30.5 per cent in the Q2FY24 as compared to 16.2 per cent in Q2FY23

As MCX manoeuvres the regulatory rigmarole over a new trading platform, its better-known rivals NSE and BSE, despite their relatively minuscule market share, are set to launch a major bid on Monday to enter the areas hitherto dominated by the country's largest commodity exchange. MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd) has been under the spotlight for a long time with regard to its transition to a new commodity trading platform from the one developed by its erstwhile promoter Financial Technologies India Ltd, now known as 63 Moons, that it has contracted to use till the year-end after repeated extensions. MCX announced last month that it will go live with the new platform developed by TCS from October 3, the implementation was put on hold soon after by the capital market regulator Sebi due to "technical issues" and in the wake of some pending legal matters. While the exchange has been holding mock trading sessions for the new software for quite a long time and will continue on .

Major stocks in fertlizer sector continue to trade with bullish bias, as their chart structures denote feasible upside.

Cash holding rises from 5% to 5.6% in April

India, according to them, is among the more sensitive markets to US rates, and demonstrates the most sensitivity to local rates given higher influence of domestic flows into the market

Trend in the equity market will be guided by a host of factors lined up this week, including inflation numbers, IIP data and quarterly earnings from IT majors, analysts said. Global cues, movement of the rupee, Brent crude oil and foreign funds will also influence Dalal Street this week, they added. "We have important macroeconomic numbers this week, as our IIP and CPI inflation will be announced on January 12. On the same day, China and the US will also come out with their inflation figures. "The Q3 earnings season will kick off with IT major earnings this week, including TCS, Infosys and HCL Tech," said Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd. Last week, the Sensex lost 940.37 points or 1.55 per cent, while the Nifty declined 245.85 points or 1.36 per cent. The Indian equity markets have begun the New Year on a slightly cautious note, in line with the global markets, continuing the trend visible in December 2022, said Milind Muchhala, Executive Director, Julius

The domestic equity market would focus on global trends and foreign fund trading activity this week amid lack of any major trigger at home, analysts said. "This week won't bring any significant cues, so we may see a tussle between bulls and bears. Because the US market is currently experiencing the second wave of selling following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, its direction will continue to be crucial. "Due to the fact that FIIs were net sellers for a significant portion of December, institutional flows will be another crucial trigger," said Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd. Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said, in absence of any major event, cues from global indices, especially the US, would remain on participants' radar. Global central banks like the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of England (BoE) followed the US Federal Reserve in increasing policy rates and giving hawkish commentary, sending equities

Quarterly earnings, global cues and foreign fund movement would continue to set the tone for the equity market in a holiday-shortened week ahead, analysts said. Stock markets will be closed on Tuesday for 'Gurunanak Jayanti'. "On the domestic front, the market will react to the last batch of Q2 earnings from companies like BPCL, Coal India, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Hindalco and Mahindra & Mahindra," said Pravesh Gour, Senior Technical Analyst, Swastika Investmart Ltd. Apart from this, institutional flows are playing a vital role because foreign investors have shown their interest in the Indian equity market, Gour added. After withdrawing funds in the last two months, foreign portfolio investors came back strongly in the first week of November and infused Rs 15,280 crore in Indian equities on hopes that the US Federal Reserve would go soft on rate hikes. On the results front, State Bank of India (SBI) on Saturday posted a 74 per cent jump in standalone profit to Rs 13,265 crore

A rally in the US markets amid hope of a softer central bank (US Fed) action going ahead, analysts believe, has the potential to fuel a rally in other global equity markets, including India

A sustained recovery in Asian markets, Nomura said, will largely depend on how the Covid situation and the ensuing curbs put in place to combat the pandemic in China plays out going ahead

SATISH RAMANATHAN, chief investment officer for Equity at JM Financial Asset Management shares his outlook for the markets and his sector preferences

High inflation will keep the markets on edge as they were hoping that the global central banks, especially the US Fed and the RBI will go soft on rate hikes over the next few months

They turn cautious and prefer defensive bets

The rally in PSU pack thus far in CY22 was mostly led by stocks from the banking and defence-related verticals, while those of oil & gas and metals & minerals did not contribute much

However, for the markets to achieve this ambitious target, a number of variables at the fundamental level first need to fall into place to complete the jigsaw puzzle

TMS Ep172: Power outages, Campbell Wilson, markets, EV range anxiety

How are power outages affecting Indian industries? Why did Tata Sons choose Campbell Wilson to lead Air India? How have asset classes fared in 2022? What is range anxiety among EV buyers? All answers

Stocks like Asian Paints, Astral, Balrampur Chini, Birlasoft, Carborundum Universal, eClerx, Infosys, Max Healthcare, Tube Investments and Torrent Pharma and others are trading at life-time highs

Shares of Raymond Ltd and IOB are showing extreme bullish outlook on the charts