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The stock market will observe a holiday on Monday due to the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Mumbai. Therefore, this trading week will remain shortened. In the last trading session on Friday, the key equity benchmark indices settled higher for the second consecutive session. The S&P BSE Sensex closed the session over 250 points higher at 73,917, while the NSE Nifty50 index ended the day at 22,466, climbing more than 50 points.
Sharing an outlook on the week, Arvinder Singh Nanda, Senior VP, Master Capital Services Ltd, said, “ONGC, SAIL, BHEL, JK Tyre, One97 Communications, Power Grid, InterGlobe Aviation, ITC, and NTPC will announce their quarterly earnings this week. The outlook for the market will be guided by the major domestic and global economic data, such as India’s PMI manufacturing and service data, UK inflation data, US initial jobless claims, S&P global services data, and S&P global manufacturing PMI and Q4 corporate results.”
In the special trading session on Saturday, the indices closed slightly higher. The Sensex settled the session up by nearly 100 points at 74,005.94, while the Nifty ended trading at 22,502, inching up by 36 points.
Official data from the depositories revealed that foreign portfolio investors remained bearish on Indian equities in May so far due to the uncertainties surrounding the general elections. The investors dumped Indian equities worth Rs 28,242 crore, as of May 17, however, they infused the Indian debt market with Rs 178 crore in the same period.
Sunil Damania, Chief Investment Officer, MojoPMS, stated that the investors have been selling in the current fiscal year. “First, there’s uncertainty about the general elections. FPIs generally don’t like uncertainty; they prefer to play it safe and lock in the profit they made last year. Second, the market valuations are high,” he explained.
