Major laggards among Sensex constituents included Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel and ITC. Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, NTPC and Titan emerged as winners.
Inflation data, both at domestic and global level, interest rate scenario in the US, geopolitical situation and general elections in 2024 are some of the major factors that would influence trading in the equity market this financial year, analysts said. Besides, foreign fund trading activity and global trends will also dictate terms in the equity market going ahead. Equity markets across the globe faced major challenges in FY23 due to concerns over high inflation, which resulted in increase in interest rates around the world, lowering investor sentiment, experts added.
'Rather than cutting and pasting from advanced economies, we should use basic economic principles to think about what is right for India at the stage of development at which we are,' says Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian.
This is contrary to the expectations of a majority of analysts predicting for another hike given the rise in inflation lately, including domestic ratings agency Icra
Rating agency Standard & Poor's on Friday revised upwards the long-term corporate credit ratings of software majors TCS, Infosys and Wipro to 'A' from 'BBB+.'
'Continue with your SIPs to get the benefit of lower average prices in this challenging market environment.'
'It may sound like sacrilege, but does it really matter if the global raters downgrade India for fiscal slippage?' asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Shares of One97 Communications (OCL), which provides financial services under the brand 'Paytm', and has a banking arm Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL), hit the 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 428.10 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Monday's (February 26) intraday trade. The up move in the stock on Monday came after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), in post stock market hours, to look into the possibility of migrating PPBL customers, using the UPI handle '@paytm', to four-to-five other banks.
Indian markets on Thursday shrugged off any negative impact.
The country's exports edged up 1 per cent to $38.45 billion in December 2023 while the trade deficit narrowed to a three-month low of $19.8 billion, official data released on Monday showed. Imports declined by 4.85 per cent to $58.25 billion in December last year due to a dip in crude oil shipments. The previous low in trade deficit - the difference between imports and exports - was recorded in September at $19.37 billion.
'While foreign institutional investor flows are still negative, they will turn positive in the latter part of 2023 as India's resilient growth becomes perceptible.'
More rate cut by RBI unlikely this fiscal, say Ind-Ra
'People till date say Gooch swept us out of the game. But if anyone watches that game, you will see that there were times when he was beaten for turn and the ball missed the stumps by a whisker. There were times he missed some straight balls going for sweep but in the pre-DRS days, you didn't get front-foot LBW in those days.'
The Sri Lanka-Afghanistan fixture will be the second one at the Gadaffi Stadium and is expected to be a run feast. - Asia Cup 2023.
It's the first time in my memory that I have seen a negative expected return for equities, notes Akash Prakash. Hopefully, this implies the consensus is being too negative, and markets, as usual, will surprise everyone and deliver the least likely outcome.
Unless RBI temporarily relaxes the norms on recognising of bad loans, the pressure on this front could rise in the December quarter.
'I don't jump at everything that comes my way. (But) To say that I have too many offers coming my way is also a lie. I'm not one of those people who turn down scripts every day.'
In 2022, gold emerged as the top performer among all conventional asset classes with over 14 per cent returns mainly owing to the depreciation of the rupee.
JP Morgan has reiterated its negative stance on Indian information technology (IT) services and downgraded the sector to underweight (neutral earlier post Q4-FY23 numbers), as it believes the overall demand environment for the sector still remains weak. The research firm expects most companies in the sector to disappoint while announcing their first quarter numbers for the current fiscal (Q1-FY24). Among stocks, it has placed Infosys, TCS, MphasiS in its 'negative catalyst watch'.
Benchmark indices failed to hold on to early gains and closed in the red for the seventh straight session on Thursday, with participants remaining in wait-and-watch mode ahead of the RBI's interest rate decision. Unabated selling by foreign funds added to the pressure, though a modest recovery in the rupee cushioned the fall, traders said. After rallying in early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex came under selling pressure in the afternoon session and closed 188.32 points or 0.33 per cent lower at 56,409.96.
'We have a plan to plough back a 'This year in the first half we had profits of more than Rs 31,000 crore.' significant amount of profits this financial year.' 'We have seen this organic plough back of profit is one of best ways to support the equity of the bank.'
RBI has, since January, cut its policy rate four times.
'All selectors must be sufficiently thick-skinned and prepared to take criticism.' T C A Srinivasa Raghavan checks out Ravi Shastri's first book.
It is early to make out which way the wind is blowing, but there is no denying that challenges for the BJP, far outweigh the advantages in this region, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
IMAGES from the ICC World Cup match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, in Bengaluru, on Thursday.
The sharp rally in the markets thus far in fiscal 2023-24 (FY24) has left analysts struggling to find investment-worthy themes. The S&P BSE Sensex has surged nearly 7 per cent thus far in FY24 and hit a fresh 52-week high of 63,601.71 levels on June 22, mostly led by foreign institutional (FII) flows. "The Indian market has seen a broad rally in the past few months but headline indices have seen more modest performance. "We are not very clear about the reasons for the rally and the divergent performance and struggle to find ideas in the consumption, investment and outsourcing sectors after the sharp run-up in several of our favored sectors and stocks in the past two months," wrote Sanjeev Prasad, co-head, Kotak Institutional Equities, in a recent co-authored note with Anindya Bhowmik and Sunita Baldawa.
Images from India's 3rd T20 International against Afghanistan at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Stock market investors are expecting a balanced Budget with a focus on job creation, increased spending on infrastructure, reigning in the deficit, and bringing the economy back on track, experts said on Wednesday. Stock markets have been subdued in the run-up to the Union Budget with BSE's benchmark Sensex is almost flat so far this month. Even the corporate earning season failed to excite the markets, while some indices like IT and bankex have seen some positive movements.
Premium valuations era started in 2006 and went hand in hand with decline in the US interest rates
Lending rates in certain segments may be increased; fixed depositors may lock into existing rates.
The financials of six privately held companies associated with Siddhartha show an increase in debt and falling ability to meet short-term obligations.
Domestic equities will be mainly driven by global market trends, foreign institutional investors' movement and developments around new Covid variant Omicron this week, according to analysts. Markets traded under pressure last week following weak global cues and overall investor sentiment remained downbeat throughout the week, they observed. "Global markets, Omicron variant, dollar index and FIIs' behaviour will be key factors to drive the market this week," said Santosh Meena, head of research, Swastika Investmart Ltd. One major event last week was US Federal Reserve's announcement that it will end bond-buying from March, and it also signalled starting rate hike cycle thereafter.
Embattled Adani group has appointed accountancy firm Grant Thornton for an independent audit of some of its companies in a bid to come clean of the damning allegations levelled by the US short-seller Hindenburg Research and to assure investors and regulators. Sources said the audit is primarily to show to regulators like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that the group has nothing to hide and it is in compliance with relevant laws. The audit will specifically look into if there was any misappropriation or repatriation of funds and if loans were used for any purpose other than the one they were intended for.
'Markets are not expensive; they are fairly priced.'
The most important positive of India's stealth bull market is earnings growth across different sectors, explains Debashis Basu.
Foreign investors have pulled over Rs 6,400 crore from the Indian equity market in the first four trading sessions of the ongoing month when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and US Federal Reserve raised interest rates. Given the headwinds in terms of elevated crude prices, inflation, tight monetary policy among others, FPIs' flows in India are expected to remain volatile in the near term, Shrikant Chouhan, Head - Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities, said. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) remained net sellers for seven months to April 2022, withdrawing a massive amount of over Rs 1.65 lakh crore from equities. This was largely on the back of anticipation of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve and due to the deteriorating geopolitical environment following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Real estate development on Mumbai airport land and the work on Navi Mumbai airport have been inordinately delayed, which have prompted rating downgrades and raised questions on its financial capabilities. It is also trying to stave off Adani group's entry as a shareholder in the Mumbai airport project.
The question is: Will the company have a strong balance sheet to support this massive investment plan?
One of cricket's greatest players passed into the ages on Monday. Rediff.com salutes the legend.
'The Street is divided on when we could recover from demonetisation.' 'The government believes it is a pain at best for two quarters.' 'Some analysts feel the impact could be felt for two-three quarters and some that it could last for 12 to 15 months.' 'Investors are stuck in a no-action zone.'
