'Relevance of earnings releases has reduced over a period of time'

In addition, the current quarter is really a lot more about outlook commentary (leading indicators) rather than results (backward-looking), the analyst says.

"We are witnessing a clear reluctance amongst investors to take large bets at this time. However, in the medium term, we think US elections (like most elections) is attracting too much attention. From a market perspective, barring a few semantic changes, we do not see a massive change in underlying factors," says UNMESH SHARMA, head of institutional equities, HDFC Securities, in interaction with Swati Verma. Edited excerpts.

Your outlook for the market given uncertainties around the Covid vaccine and US Presidential elections.

The market today is driven by a confluence of factors - not all of which are aligned with each other.