Market Next Week: Union Budget, US Fed policy decision, Q3 earnings, Jan auto sales among other top cues for Street

The coming week is going to be critical not only for the financial markets but for the economy as well as the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24) on February 01, 2023, the experts said in their outlook for next week.

Besides budget, other key triggers such as the US Fed meeting and auto sales numbers on Wednesday along with key heavyweight October-December earnings will also be in focus next week from market perspective.

“Participants will be eyeing the outcome of the US Fed meeting on the same day of Budget 2023. On the data front, the auto numbers, manufacturing and services PMI will also be in focus, Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking said in his comments.

As the earnings season gain pace, major firms like Larsen & Toubro, ACC, Sun Pharma, HDFC, ITC, and SBI will report their numbers during the week along with several others, Mishra noted.

With the Nifty, Sensex, and Nifty Bank have all broken through key support levels last week, bulls are hoping that the budget will act as a catalyst, putting bears on the defensive, Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart said in his expectations for next week.

According to Meena, “The Union budget is a key domestic event on February 1, and the outcome of the US FOMC meeting scheduled for the same day late at night is a key global event.”

A bunch of companies will come out with Q3 earnings this week, while monthly auto sales numbers and macroeconomic numbers from the USA will be other important factors, he further added.

The market will continue to monitor Adani Group, whose stock price has fallen below the floor price of its FPO, the analyst at Swastika Investmart said, adding that FIIs' flow will be important because they sold more than Rs 9000 crore in the Indian equity market last week.

The domestic markets last week finally ended a month-long consolidation phase with a breakdown and lost over 2 per cent in the holiday-shortened week, the analyst at Religare Broking said.

The first two sessions were lackluster amid mixed cues however a sharp sell-off in the final sessions completely changed the tone. Consequently, both the benchmark indices, Nifty and Sensex, settled closer to the week’s low at 17,604.35 and 59,330.90 levels respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, energy, metal, banking and financials were beaten down badly however auto and FMCG managed to withstand the decline and ended positively. The broader indices too witnessed tremendous pressure and shed in the range of 2.5-3.5 per cent last week.