Week in a Nutshell (14th November – 18th November)

Technical talks

NIFTY opened the week on 14^th November at 18,376 and closed at 18,308 on 18^th November. The index lost 0.4% during the week. The index’s next support and resistance levels would be 18,298 and 18,325 respectively. The RSI (14) of 64 indicates the index is in the overbought zone.

Among the sectoral indices, PSU BANK (+2.4%), BANK (+0.7%), and PRIVATE BANK (+0.4%) were the gainers during the week while MEDIA (-5.4%), CONSUMER DURABLES (-3.1%) and AUTO (-2%) led the losers.

Weekly highlights

• The S&P 500 and NASDAQ ended the week marginally lower and lost 0.8% and 0.5% respectively however Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week marginally higher with a 0.3% gain. St Louis Fed Reserve President alluded the Fed’s key policy rate will need to be further increased which was a cause of concern for investors. Data showed fewer Americans filed new applications for unemployment benefits last week, suggesting tightness in the labor market. The economy has survived rate hikes, according to a report released on Wednesday that highlighted solid retail sales growth in the previous month.
• Both Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate closed the week negatively at $87.7 and $80.1 per barrel respectively, brent crude and West Texas Intermediate lost 8% and 10% respectively during the week. On Monday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut down its global oil demand growth forecast for 2022 for the 5^th time and reduced the next year’s outlook due to economic challenges including high inflation and tightening of the monetary policies across the globe. Oil demand is expected to increase by 2.55mn barrels per day (bpd) or 2.6% in 2022 down by 0.1mn bpd from an earlier forecast.
• India’s retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the month of October stood at 6.77% vs 7.41% in September-22 and fell to a three-month low, data released on Monday. Despite the easing down, inflation data remains above the RBI’s comfort level of 6% for the 10^th consecutive month.
• India’s Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation for the month of October 22 fell to 8.39% vs 10.7% in September 22 and fell to the lowest since March 21. The decline in the rate of WPI inflation was primarily driven by price declines across the commodities.
• Inflow of inflation data continues during the week, UK and Japan also released their inflation data. UK’s inflation jumped to 11.1% and rose to a 41-year high in October 2022 vs 10.1% in September 2022. Japan’s inflation also hit a 40-year high in October 2022 and stood at 3.6% vs 3% in September 2022.
• India’s industrial growth measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), delivered a growth of 3.1% above consensus estimates in September 2022. Growth in IIP is led by the mining, manufacturing, and electricity sectors.
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, the global economic outlook is even gloomier than projected last month due to the tightening monetary policy on account of persistently high inflation, weak growth momentum in China, and ongoing supply disruptions and food insecurity led by Russia-Ukraine war. It has cut the global growth forecast to 2.7% from 2.9% earlier for 2023.
• Indian IT companies L&T Infotech (LTI) and Mindtree have received approval for a merger from National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and they will start operating as an LTIMindtree effective from 14^th November 2022. The board of both companies has fixed 24^th November as a record date for the allocation of shares of the merged entity to eligible shareholders. LTI-Mindtree announced the merger in May 2022, postmerger Mindtree shareholders will get 73 LTI shares for every 100 shares of Mindtree.
• India’s foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 530bn for the week ended 12^th November 2022, which declined by USD 1.087bn. in the previous reporting week, the reserves declined by USD 6.561bn. the reserves have been declining as the RBI defends the rupee amidst of global pressures.
• During the week both Foreign and Domestic institutional investors were the net buyers, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 3,492mn, and Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 22,750mn.

Things to watch out for next week

• US markets have a truncated next week as markets will be closed on Thursday, 24^th November on account of Thanksgiving Day. Inventors will closely watch the initial jobless claims data and FOMC meeting minutes on 23^rd
• In India investors will closely watch the weekly forex reserve data next week, how the RBI is defending the rupee amidst global pressures. The result season in India for the July-September quarter officially ended during the week of 14^th-18^th We expect stock-specific action as the results are out of the way.

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