The Indian stock market for the upcoming week will rely on key domestic as well as international developments. The movements around the Strait of Hormuz, US-Iran standoff and crude oil will remain key focus area for the coming week.
The quarterly earnings season are now over but the investors would monitor the trading activity of foreign investors.
Last week, the stock market remained range-bound in the manner. Sensex lost nearly 500 points and Nifty 205 points to end in the red.
Crude Oil Prices:
The oil prices stabilised around $87 per barrel, the crude jumped over $1 per barrel following tanker attacks.
Brent futures settled at $88.52 a barrel, up nearly 2%. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures finished at $82.40, up over 1%.
Middle East crisis:
In a latest development in the Middle East crisis, Iran has said that Qatar was holding three of its pilots who had been missing since March, which Qatar denied.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) has accused Iran of again attacking one of its vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Foreign investors:
Foreign investors remained net buyers of Indian equities on Friday, net purchasing shares worth Rs 508 crore.
Pabitro Mukherjee, Deputy Vice President-Research, Bajaj Broking said, FIIs closed as modest net buyers of Rs 1,228.24 crore, opening with two sessions of buying, reversing into two of selling, and returning as buyers on the final day.
“In last one month, FIIs sold heavily through the first two weeks — Rs 4,205.56 crore , Rs 3,892.77 crore and the index bottomed at 23,767.45 on precisely the day that pressure peaked. They then flipped to buying from 28 July onwards, and Nifty recovered to 24,774.30 by 3 August. Even so, the cumulative figure remains negative at Rs 3,173.68 crore, meaning three weeks of buying could not undo two weeks of damage.”
Domestic investors remain buyers:
DIIs were net buyers in every single week, totalling Rs 38,715.18 crore. August month-to-date reads FII +4,115.93 crore against DII +17,053 crore, a genuine improvement in foreign tone; but note that the index has drifted lower since 3 August despite that buying, Pabitro Mukherjee said.
DIIs remained consistent buyers, with net purchases recorded in all sessions except the first, committing Rs 9,285.63 crore. Yet Nifty drifted lower through the week, from 24,583.80 to 24,366.