Domestic equity market settled the truncated week in the red as uncertainty over rising inflation and a firm US dollar weighed sentiment. The benchmark BSE Sensex plunged 1108.25 points or 1.9 per cent to 58338.93 on April 13. The index was at 59447.18 on April 8, 2022. The 50-share NSE Nifty index dipped 1.7 per cent to 17,475.65 during the same period.
Stock exchanges were closed on April 14 and April 15 on account of public holidays.
With a fall of 6.02 per cent, Hindalco Industries emerged as the top loser in the Nifty index. It was followed by Tata Motors (down 4.65 per cent), Wipro (down 4.19 per cent), Coal India (up 4.09 per cent) and Bajaj Finserv (up 3.93 per cent). Apollo Hospitals, ONGC, Sun Pharmaceutical, JSW Steel, NTPC and UPL Limited advanced between 1 per cent and 3 per cent. Meanwhile, IT majors Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys announced their financial results for the quarter ended March 31. Shares of TCS declined 0.64 per cent during the week, while Infosys lost more than 3.50 per cent.
Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services said, “The onset of the earnings season, the release of key inflation data and ECB policy meeting drove the market this week. Hyperinflation and the risk of elevated policy rate hike placed the global market on its toes impacting the performance of equities with rise in yield.”
India’s CPI inflation which stood at 6.95 per cent in March is expected to remain on the higher side in Q1FY23 but is expected to subside on hopes of a reversal of commodity prices and improvement in supply. With the start of the earnings season, the domestic market is also likely to be buoyed by sector-specific momentum in the coming days.
Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, the Information Technology index retreated the most by 3.10 per cent. TECk, Metal, Realty and Capital Goods also declined somewhere between 1.9 per cent and 3 per cent. The BSE Power and Oil & Gas gained 5.2 per cent and 0.70 per cent, respectively.
In the forthcoming week, market participants will zero in on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data for March, scheduled to be released on April 18. The annual wholesale price inflation rate in India unexpectedly rose to 13.11 per cent in February 2022 from a four-month low of 12.96 per cent a month earlier.
Meanwhile, the next batch of Q4 and year ended FY2022 results will dictate near term trends on the bourses. Some prominent companies which are scheduled to announce their earnings are Mindtree, ACC, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, Angel One, Tata Elxsi, Cyient, HCL Technologies, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, L&T Technology Services, Nestle, Rallis India, Tata Communications etc. However, markets will take opening cues on Monday from the earnings of index heavyweight Infosys, which came on Wednesday post market hours.
Shares of public sector banks (PSU) will be on the radar as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet public sector banks’ chiefs in New Delhi on April 23 to review their performance in FY22 and set the agenda for the current fiscal.
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