This Week in a Nutshell (27-31 Dec)

Technical talks

NIFTY opened the week on 27^th December at 17,004 and ended the week on 31^st December at 17,354. The index made a weekly gain of 2.1%. On the upside, 17,400 could act as resistance while 17,166 could act as a support. RSI (14) of 53 and a positive divergence on MACD (26,12) indicates further upside in the index.

Among the indices, MEDIA was the only sector that ended the week with a loss of -1.0%. HEALTHCARE (5.5%), PHARMA (5.4%), and CONSUMER DURABLES (4.4%) led the gainers.

Weekly highlights

• The US indices closed the curtailed week in the red, affected by low volumes due to the festive season and increasing worries of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. These factors combined with muted institutional activity and retail buying led the Indian markets higher, as Indian equities bounced back from last week’s losses Nifty50 ended ~2% higher.
• The Central Government earned Rs 1.29 tn in gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue for December. The Ministry of Finance said the average monthly gross GST collection for the third quarter of the ongoing fiscal was higher than the average monthly collection of Rs 1.10 lakh crore and Rs 1.15 lakh crore, recorded in the first and second quarters respectively.
• India’s current account slipped into a deficit of $9.6 billion, or 1.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of the ongoing fiscal, the Reserve Bank of India reported. For the reporting quarter, the deficit was mainly due to the widening of the trade deficit to $44.4 billion from $30.7 billion in the preceding quarter, and an increase in net outgo of investment income.
• The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) stated that the GST rate on any worth of clothes will be 12% beginning next year. Currently, a 5% tax on sales up to Rs 1000 per piece is charged. Further, the GST rates on some synthetic fibres and yarn have been reduced from 18 to 12%, putting rates in line with the rest of the textiles sector, this was done to address anomalies caused by an inverted duty structure, which occurs when the tax rate on inputs is greater than the tax on the finished product.
• Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) financial stability report suggests stress for banks would rise in 2022, especially in the retail and MSME segment, but banks most are well-capitalized to deal with it. The report showed while bad loans may rise, they won’t hit double digits by September 2022. In the worst-case scenario, gross NPAs may rise to 9.5 percent due to all the benefits of moratoriums expiring, we might see short-term stress in the provisioning.
• Fears over the impact of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus resulted in Oil remaining volatile throughout the week. With the number of cases doubling, several countries have announced restrictions, there’s an anticipation of demand reduction and Brent Crude ended the week lower at $77.8 per barrel.
• Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) continued to be net sellers this week, selling shares worth Rs 35,070 mn. Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) continued to be buyers and invested Rs 31,300 mn in Indian equities this week. The month of December ended with net FII outflows of Rs 4,55,790 Mn and net DII Inflows of Rs 4,02,490 Mn.

Things to watch out for next week

• Rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 will be on investors’ minds this week. It’ll be interesting to see how India and other Emerging Markets respond to the anticipation of lockdown-like restrictions.
• The U.S. Jobs non-farms payrolls report comes out Friday. Expectations are for growth of 400,000 jobs, vs. 210K last month and an average of 494K jobs added in the last six months. The key thing to watch out for would be the commentary of voluntary unemployment as the labour participation rate continues to fall post-pandemic.
• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets on 04^th At their previous meeting, OPEC reaffirmed their decision to increase oil production in 2022 and said that they expected a low impact from Omicron on demand for oil. With various industries reporting inflationary headwinds due to oil prices increasing, a lot of eyes will be waiting to see how OPEC responds to demands of output increase amid Omicron fears.
• The Indian equity market is likely to see more selling pressure next week amid the concern over the spread of omicron variant and FIIs returning after a week of muted action due to the holiday season. Action is likely to be broad index specific until Q3FY22 result season beginning 12^th

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