Last week, the domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty closed on a positive note despite losses in the last two trading sessions. The rupee weakened by 77 paise to 70.49 against the dollar.
After surging to 8.4% in October, the Index of Industrial Production(IIP) slowed down significantly in November. It grew only 0.5% from a year ago, much lower than the expected 3.6%. The production growth in manufacturing, consumer durables and capital goods contracted simultaneously, which is a signals weakness in both consumption and investments.
This highlights of this week will be the third quarter earnings, macro data and crude price.
Quarterly earnings: Companies such as Reliance Industries, Cyient, Hindustan Unilever, Rallis India, ICICI Securities, Multi Commodity Exchange of India, Mindtree, SBI Life Insurance Company and Wipro are expected to announce their earnings for the quarter ended December 31.
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Inflation data: India’s wholesale and retail inflation for December will be released on Monday. Both are important indicators of the health of the economy. Retail inflation, which is calculated on the consumer price index (CPI), was at a 17-month low in November at 2.33 per cent, mainly on account of decline in prices of kitchen essentials. On the other hand, country’s wholesale inflation fell to a three-month low of 4.64 per cent in November.
Global Events
Key Data: China’s exports and imports data for December will be released Monday. The US Federal Reserve will issue the Beige Book of Economic Condition, which is a report of current economic conditions, trends and challenges in the US, on Thursday.
US will share the balance of trade data for November and retail sales for December and China might release its fourth quarter GDP data this week.
Brexit: The British Parliament will vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal deal on Tuesday.
US-China trade deal: Even as the last week’s talk between the US and China did not reveal much for the market, the optimism is still in air.
Crude oil: Oil prices fell nearly 2 per cent on Friday, but ended the week higher. Hopes of a Sino-US trade deal have given a leg up to oil prices.