Dalal Street Week Ahead: Q4 earnings, monthly expiry, macro number and other things to watch

The Indian equity markets will mainly be influenced by multiple factors, including March quarter earnings, derivatives monthly expiry, and macro numbers in the next week, according to analysts. They also believe that triggers such as foreign investors’ flow, the rupee’s movement against the US dollar, and the crude oil trend shall also dictate the benchmark indices in the coming week.

Q4 Earnings

In absence of any major event, the focus will remain on Q4 earnings for cues in the coming week, Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking, said in his comment, adding that participants will first react to the Reliance and ICICI Bank’s numbers during Monday’s session.

“In the following sessions, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, ACC, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, and Kotak Bank will announce their numbers during the week along with several others,” he added.

Monthly Expiry

Besides, the scheduled monthly expiry of the April month derivatives contract will keep the participants busy, he opined.

“Ongoing quarterly results season will be in focus as the IT sector’s heavyweights have disappointed us with lower-than-anticipated earnings to date,” Arvinder Singh Nanda, Senior Vice President, Master Capital Services said.

Macro Numbers

According to Nanda, India’s fiscal deficit numbers will also be announced in the coming week on Friday, 28 April 2023, the government projected a decline in fiscal deficit to 5.9 per cent of GDP in FY24 during the Union Budget.

Global Cues

On the global front, Nanda said that US GDP Q1 numbers, and Eurozone GDP Q1 numbers are the key events that will drive the market in the next week.

“Global cues will be crucial, along with US macro data, the movement of US bond yields, and the dollar index. In April, FIIs turned from net sellers to purchasers, and their actions will continue to influence the market's course," Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart said.

The Indian markets experienced a dip after rising for three consecutive weeks and lost over a percent. The tone was subdued from the beginning amid pressure in the IT majors such as Infosys post their earnings and it further deteriorated with a decline in other IT heavyweights as the week progressed.

However, resilience in other key sectors like banking, energy and auto, combined with a rebound in the defensive pack viz. pharma and FMCG eased some pressure.

Amid all, Nifty and Sensex managed to hold 17,600 and settled at 17,624.05 and 59,655 levels. Meanwhile, the broader indices outperformed the benchmark and ended in the green.