Quarterly earnings from blue-chips like Infosys and RIL as well as a movement of the rupee and crude oil prices will dictate the market trend in the holiday-shortened week ahead. Stock markets would remain closed on Thursday for Dussehra.
Rupee managed to hit a fresh low of Rs 74.48 per dollar on Friday. Going forward, any negative moves on the back of a strengthening dollar or rising crude is likely to strain the rupee as well.
EARNINGS
Earnings season has begun with the likes of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bandhan Bank declaring their results for the September quarter. This week, 71 companies will declare their results. Prominent among them are HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Delta Corp, Indiabulls Housing Finance, IndusInd Bank, Monnet Ispat, Network18, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys, ACC, DCB Bank, Mindtree, ICICI Securities and UltraTech Cement.
Investors are likely to react to the September quarter earnings declared by HUL. The FMCG major reported a 19.5 per cent year-on-year growth in standalone profit to Rs 15.25 billion, driven by strong volume growth of 10 per cent and operational performance.
MACRO DATA
The Street is likely to react to key macro data released by the government on October 12. Industrial production grew 4.3 per cent in August as against 6.6 per cent in July, data released by the Central Statistics Office showed. Meanwhile, retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 3.77 per cent in September from 3.69 per cent in August, driven by higher food and fuel prices and a weakening rupee.
Whole Sale Price index (WPI) inflation data for September will be announced later in the day today.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian shares slipped on Monday as worries over Sino-U.S. trade disputes, a possible slowdown in the Chinese economy and higher U.S. borrowing costs tempered optimism despite a rebound in global equities late last week.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3 per cent while Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.9 per cent.
MSCI’s broadest gauge of the world’s stock markets was off 0.1 per cent after a sizable 3.87 per cent decline last week to a one-year nadir, and marking its biggest weekly fall since March.