Budget, earnings, global cues, among factors to determine market direction

The government will be presenting the Union Budget 2018 on February 1 for the next financial year. It assumes significance as it is seen as the last full-fledged Budget before the 2019 general elections. The stock market rally will depend a lot on the announcements in the Budget. Investors will keenly watch out for cues from the event, whether populist or conservative.

Market was highly volatile ahead of important events like Union Budget and quarterly results announcements. In the last trading session of the week on Thursday the market fell after rising for the six consecutive sessions. Nifty declined 16 points toclose at 11070 and Sensex slipped 111 points to close at 36,050. Traders were booking profit after market saw a relentless rally in the past few sessions and Brent crude surged to a 3-year high of $71/bbl. Among the global markets, Asian markets declined 1% each (both Nikkei and Hong Kong declined 1%) on Thursday. 

The Budget Session will begin on January 29, 2018, with the presentation of Economic Survey report and will end on February 9. 

Other factors that will influence the Indian market are corporate earnings, oil price movements and global market movements, among others. 

Company Board meetings on Jan 29

Apar Industries, Astra Mi-crowave, Century Textiles, Elgi Equipment, Emami Ltd, Himadri Chemical, HSIL Ltd, IDFC, Inox Leisure, Lakshmi Machine Tools, LaurusLabs, Nava Bharat Venture, Orient Cement, RCOM, Sun Pharma Advance, Supreme Petro, Tech Mahindra, Trident, and Wockhardt.

Results -

• Apar Industries, Astra Microwave, Century Textiles, Elgi Equipment, Emami Ltd, Himadri Chemical, HSIL Ltd, IDFC, Inox Leisure, Lakshmi Machine Tools, Laurus Labs, NavaBharat Venture, Orient Cement, RCOM, SunPharma Advance, Supreme Petro, TechMahindra, Trident and Wockhardt
•  
• Stocks in focus
• Maruti Q3 net profit Rs18bn (up 3% YoY) EBITDA margin 16%vs 17.2% Q2 and sales Rs192.8bn (up 14.3% YoY), negative impact of market -to-market invested surplus, Maruti says new royalty to lower payment for new model
•  
• IndusInd Bank gets RBI approval to reappoint Sobti as CEO, Sobti reappointment for period up to March 23, 2020 
•  
• Indian Overseas Bank transfer Rs7.5 bn debt in Bhushan Steelto ARC Dr Reddy Q3 net profit Rs 3.03bn (down 35.5% YoY) , other income Rs 430mn vs Rs 320mn and sales Rs 38.3bn (up 3.5%YoY)
•  
• Fitch sees $14bn Bank bailout easing India downgrade woes -Pressure on the ratings of India's state-owned banks is set toease after the government unveiled plans to inject 881 billion rupees ($14 billion) of fresh capital to help the lenders meet looming Basel norms without hurting a nascent recovery incredit growth.
•  
• Torrent Pharma approves raising up to Rs125 bn via bonds, debenture, approves raising up to Rs 50 bn via share issue option
•  
• UPL Q3 net profit Rs5.74bn (, other income Rs 1.19bn and sales Rs 41.9 bn)
•  
• Nilkamal Q3 net profit Rs 330.8 mn (up 17% YoY) and salesRs 5.23bn (up 5.5% YoY) US 

Data:

• Initial Jobless Claims - Bloomberg expectation 235k (Prior220k)

Commodity:

• Oil extended its three-year high as a record stretch of declines in US crude stockpiles added to signs that global markets are burning off a chronic surplus.

Global Cues

• The street will monitor Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting next week.
•  
• Asian stocks declined following four consecutive days of gains, as Japanese equities slumped after the yen surged on comments by US administration officials at the Davos World Economic Forum.
•  
• According to brokerage Motilal Oswal, it was a mixed picture across European stocks, as investors digested the weakening dollar and a protectionist push from the US that helped spur declines in Asian equities.