Rupee value, funds to guide Indian equities
Currency strengthened by 1.15 paise in the past week to Rs65.46 against the US dollar
Aiming to retain their psychologically significant levels, key Indian equity indices will seek direction from the movement of the rupee, influx of foreign funds and global macroeconomic data during the trade week starting from today.
“With no major domestic triggers or events in the coming week, investors should continue to keep an eye on global events and fresh investment by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs), as well as the movement of the rupee against the US dollar in the near term,” Vijay Singhania, Founder and Director of brokerage firm Trade Smart Online, said.
The Indian rupee strengthened by 1.15 paise in the week gone by to Rs65.46 (Dh3.67) against the US dollar.
Provisional figures from the stock exchanges showed that the FIIs purchased stocks worth Rs81.2 billion, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) divested scrip worth Rs21.9 billion in the last week.
Figures from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought equities worth Rs74.9 billion, or $1.13 billion, during March 14-17.
Market observers cited that the tone for the week ahead will be set by the release of some major global macroeconomic data. Apart from that, other global macro-data slated for next week include the US initial jobless claims for the week ended March 17, and the Eurozone Markit PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) Composite data for March 2017.
Market experts opined that the markets may witness some profit- booking during the upcoming week.
The benchmark NSE Nifty hit a record intra-day high of 9,218.40 and closed above the 9,100-mark for the first time during the truncated week ended Friday. Similarly, the Sensex touched a new 52 weekhigh of 29,824.62.
The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE surged by 702.76 points or 2.43 per cent to close at 29,648.99, while the NSE Nifty was up by 225.5 points or 2.52 per cent at 9,160.05.