(Bloomberg) -- Indian equities swung as investors awaited an interim budget presentation and the outcome of the central bank’s monetary policy meeting, both scheduled for early next month. Investors are also waiting new developments on U.S.-China trade talks.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was little changed at 36,101.41 as of 10 a.m. in Mumbai, after swinging at least nine times between losses and gain.s The NSE Nifty 50 Index was also little changed, at 10,827.65.
Global developments such as the trade negotiations and local events including next week’s national budget and the Reserve Bank of India’s rate meeting on Feb. 7 may influence investors’ interest in equities. The absence of major surprises in company earnings reports for the last quarter of 2018 may also see attention shifting toward election campaigning ahead of the general poll expected to start in April.
Strategist Views
- “The present level of the indexes is neither a ceiling nor a floor for the coming five months,” said Sanjay Sinha, founder of Citrus Advisors in Mumbai. “Four significant events are playing out” that may influence investors, he said, citing earnings that are scheduled to end on Feb. 15, the interim budget being unveiled on Feb. 1, monetary policy on Feb. 7, and a federal election expected to start in April.
- “These earnings were already discounted in the recent rally,” he said.
- “Investors are unnecessarily focusing on national elections as a key risk to markets; they should be more worried about global events such as the U.S. slipping into a recession, the impact of Brexit on the European Union, and a China slowdown,” Sinha said.
The Numbers
- Eleven of the 19 sector indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. retreated, paced by a gauge of metal stocks.
- Nineteen of the 31 Sensex stocks and 26 of the 50 Nifty companies fell. Tata Motors Ltd.’s was among the steepest decliners as the shares dropped for a sixth day, their longest losing streak since December 2017.
- Net incomes of nine of the 12 Nifty companies that have reported earnings so far have topped or beaten analyst estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
- Thirumalai Chemicals Ltd. plunged 19 percent, most since October 2015, after it reported a 78 percent slump in its third-quarter net income from a year earlier.
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