This Week in a nutshell (July 19th to July 23rd)

Technical Talks

NIFTY opened the week on 19th July at 15,754 and closed on 23rd July at 15,851, it made a small weekly gain of 0.6%. The index is trading below its upper Bollinger band level of 15,952, which might act as a resistance. On the downside, 20 DMA of 15,788 might act as a support. The index might trade in the range of the above-mentioned levels before making a strong move on either side.

Weekly highlights

• After two sessions of losses and Wednesday being a holiday, the Market recovered for the last 2 days of the week as Nifty ended below 15,900, led by gains in most of the sectoral indices including Realty, Bank, Pvt bank, etc.
• Among the sectoral indices, NIFTY Private Bank was the top loser (-2.26%) this week followed by Nifty Auto (-2.18%) and NIFTY IT was the top gainer (+1.68%) as most of the IT companies came up with strong numbers and positive outlook. 
• The Nifty Private Banks sector was impacted by the result of HDFC Bank where the earnings growth in the June quarter was the lowest seen in many years. The disruption caused by the second wave of COVID-19 impacted profitability as the bank shored up provisions. HDFC Bank was down by 5.2% this week. On monthly basis, the defensive sectors are again at the forefront. Pharma and IT are up by 4.5% and 2.9% respectively.
• Zomato made a stellar debut on bourses on Friday, listing at Rs 116 apiece on the NSE, garnering a 53 percent premium over its issue price of Rs 76 per share. The valuation of the company soared to Rs 910 bn.
• India continued to attract strong foreign direct investment inflows in the first two months of FY22.  Gross FDI inflows more than doubled to $18.3 billion in April-May this year compared to $8.5 billion in the same period a year ago, according to RBI data. Nearly a third of the inflows are in the form of acquisition of shares rather than investing in new projects.
• Oil prices trimmed gains on Friday but were poised to end the week largely steady after rebounding from a sharp drop, underpinned by expectations supply will remain tight as demand recovers. Brent crude futures fell 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $73.72 a barrel at 0147 GMT, after jumping 2.2% on Thursday. For the week, Brent was headed for a 0.1% gain.
• Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued to be net sellers in Indian equity of Rs 54,460 mn, and the quantum of outflows increased from the previous week of Rs 15,350 mn. Conversely, Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) continued to be net buyers with an increased net outflow of Rs 50,520 mn vs the previous week’s Rs 12,000 mn. 

                                                                       Things to watch out

• With results season picking up, quarterly numbers are to be watched out.
• With Covid third wave concerns hovering around, government restrictions & policies regarding full or partial lockdowns are to be watched out for.