Quarterly corporate earnings, global trends and trading activity by foreign investors will guide market sentiment this week, analysts said, adding that benchmark indices may face volatile trends.
“The upcoming release of second quarter results will be closely watched, providing insight into corporate performance. Meanwhile, escalating tensions between Israel and Iran introduce significant geopolitical risk, potentially leading to higher oil prices and market volatility. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) are a key driver of the Indian market performance and their position will depend on factors such as global economic conditions and domestic political developments,” said Pravesh Gur, Senior Technical Analyst, Swastika Investmart Ltd.
HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 6% rise in net profit for the September quarter to Rs 17,825.91 crore on a consolidated basis.
On a standalone basis, the largest private sector lender’s net profit after tax rose to Rs 16,820.97 crore in the reporting period, up from Rs 15,976.11 crore in the year-ago period.
“In the absence of any major triggers, market participants will focus on upcoming directional gains. First, they will react to the performance of heavyweight banks like HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank. Later, companies like ITC, Hindustan Unilever, BPCL, HPCL and Ultratech Cement will also announce their earnings,” said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president, research, Religare Broking Ltd.
Bajaj Housing Finance, Adani Green Energy, Bajaj Finance, One97 Communications, Zomato, Bajaj Finserv and Bank of Baroda will also announce earnings this week.
Kotak Mahindra Bank on Saturday reported a 13 percent rise in profit for the September quarter to Rs 5,044 crore, helped by the performance of its subsidiaries.
On a standalone basis, the private sector lender’s net profit for the quarter rose 5 percent to Rs 3,344 crore, capped by a jump in provisions.
“Geopolitical uncertainty coupled with the sluggishness of the Chinese economy and the steady outflow of FIIs from the domestic markets have led to caution,” said Prashant Tapse, Senior Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.
A massive outflow of foreign funds from domestic markets dragged benchmark indices lower last week.
Last week, the BSE benchmark was down 156.61 points or 0.19 per cent and the Nifty was down 110.2 points or 0.44 per cent.
“The trend of FII selling and DII (domestic institutional investors) buying is likely to continue in the short term. The rationale behind the FPI (Foreign Portfolio Investors) selling is bullish valuations in India and cheap valuations in Chinese stocks, which FPIs have been buying aggressively since mid-September,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
McCap of 4 of the top-10 most valued firms jumped Rs 81,151 Cr last week
Four of the top 10 most valued firms together added Rs 81,151.31 crore in market valuation last week, with ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank emerging as the top gainers.
While HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India were the gainers, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, ITC and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) saw a combined erosion of 76,622.05 crores of rupees from their market valuation.
ICICI Bank added Rs 28,495.14 crore, taking its market valuation to Rs 8,90,191.38 crore.
HDFC Bank’s valuation jumped by Rs 23,579.11 crore to Rs 12,82,848.30 crore.
State Bank of India’s market valuation rose by Rs 17,804.61 crore to Rs 7,31,773.56 crore and that of Bharti Airtel rose by Rs 11,272.45 crore to Rs 9,71,707.61 crore.
On the other hand, Infosys’ market capitalization (mcap) tumbled by Rs 23,314.31 crore to Rs 7,80,126.10 crore.
Reliance Industries’ valuation declined by Rs 16,645.39 crore to Rs 18,38,721.14 crore.
Hindustan Unilever’s mcap fell by Rs 15,248.85 crore to Rs 6,38,066.75 crore and that of TCS fell by Rs 10,402.01 crore to Rs 14,91,321.40 crore.
LIC’s valuation fell by Rs 8,760.12 crore to Rs 5,91,418.91 crore.
ITC’s mcap fell by Rs 2,251.37 crore to Rs 6,08,682.29 crore.
Reliance Industries continues to be the top rated domestic firm followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Infosys, State Bank of India, Hindustan Unilever, ITC and LIC.
(With PTI inputs)
