Stock Market Outlook: Earnings, Global Cues To Dictate Market Trend This Week

Quarterly earnings and global trends would be the major driving factors for the equity markets this week as trading resumes after a long holiday, said analysts.

The Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 situation in China would be monitored for further cues, they added.

"As earnings season gathers pace, D-Street will be eyeing quarterly results to gauge the future trajectory of the market. As no major global or domestic macroeconomic events are expected this week, stock-specific movements will be more pronounced and whipsaw movements can be witnessed as a result of earnings hits and misses," said Yesha Shah, Head of Equity Research, Samco Securities.

 WPI inflation for March is scheduled to be announced on Monday.

Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said, the markets will react to two major earnings -- Infosys and HDFC Bank -- on Monday. 

India's second-largest software services firm Infosys last week posted a 12 per cent year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit for the March quarter at Rs 5,686 crore, as it projected 13-15 per cent revenue growth for FY23 on the back of a "strong demand environment" and "robust deal pipeline".

The country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 22.8 per cent jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 10,055.2 crore for the quarter ended March 2022.  

Besides, MindTree, ACC, HCL Technologies, Nestle and Hindustan Zinc would announce their earnings this week.

"With the start of earnings season, the domestic market is also likely to be buoyed by sector-specific momentum in the coming days," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

In the holiday-truncated last week, the Sensex tumbled 1,108.25 points or 1.86 per cent, while the Nifty lost 308.70 or 1.73 per cent.

Markets would also track foreign institutional investors' investment trends, and the movement of the rupee and Brent crude, experts added.