Inflation data, earnings, global trends to guide market movement this week

WPI inflation data for March, quarterly earnings, global trends and foreign fund trading activity are major factors that will drive equity markets this week, analysts said.

Investors will also focus on the movement of crude oil prices and the trend in the rupee against the US dollar.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation data for March would be released on Monday.

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"Trend in global markets, domestic and global macroeconomic data, crude oil prices and movement of the rupee against the dollar will dictate the trend this week," said Arvinder Singh Nanda, Senior Vice President of Master Capital Services Ltd.

HCL Technologies, Hindustan Zinc, Tata Coffee and Tata Communications are some of the major firms that will announce their quarterly earnings this week.

"Focus will be on earnings and global markets for cues. On the earnings front, participants will first react to Infosys and HDFC Bank's numbers in early trade on Monday," Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.

Largest private sector lender HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 20.6 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 12,594.5 crore for the March 2023 quarter, driven by a healthy core performance.

Infosys on Thursday reported lower-than-expected growth in the fourth quarter net profit and gave a weak 4-7 per cent revenue growth guidance for FY24 amid the tightening of IT budgets by clients following turmoil in the US banking sector.

In a holiday-shortened last week, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 598.03 points or 0.99 per cent.

Equity markets were closed on Friday on account of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti.

"The sentiment will continue to be driven by the movement of the world markets. The market will be keeping an eye on our Q4 earnings and the commentary will be followed closely," Pravesh Gour, Senior Technical Analyst, Swastika Investment Ltd, said.