Investors Look To Q4 Earnings For Cues

This week, all eyes will be on the earnings reports of companies like HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, and Maruti. Globally, any updates related to tariffs and their potential impact on world markets will remain in focus, said Ajit Mishra, Sr V-P (research), Religare Broking Ltd

New Delhi: Trading sentiment in the equity market will largely be driven by domestic corporate quarterly earnings, any update related to US tariffs and foreign fund movements this week, analysts said.

Investors would also focus on world market trends, movement of global oil benchmark Brent crude and the rupee-dollar trend for further cues, experts noted.

“This week, all eyes will be on the earnings reports of companies like HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, and Maruti. Globally, any updates related to tariffs and their potential impact on world markets will remain in focus,” said Ajit Mishra, Sr V-P (research), Religare Broking Ltd. Stocks of India’s second-largest IT company Infosys will remain in focus on Monday after the firm reported an 11.7 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs7,033 crore for the March quarter, mainly on account of compensation to employees, and acquisitions during the reported period.

“This week, we expect gradual up-move to continue in the Indian market, driven by supporting factors like FII buying interest, cool-off in domestic inflation and IMD’s forecast of an above-normal monsoon. Meanwhile, any escalation on the US tariff front could induce volatility; while stock/sector specific action would carry on amidst the release of Q4 and annual results for FY25,” added Siddhartha Khemka, head (research), Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 7 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit for the March quarter to Rs18,835 crore, but flagged issues around pricing in home and corporate loan segments which are impacting its loan growth. ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 15.7 per cent jump in March quarter consolidated net profit at Rs13,502 crore. In the holiday-shortened last week, the BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 3,395.94 points or 4.51 per cent, and the NSE Nifty surged 1,023.1 points or 4.48 per cent.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd, said: “There is a distinct reversal of FII activity during the last three trading days ending April 17. FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) bought stocks worth Rs14,670 crore in the cash market during the last three trading days. This reversal in FII activity has been caused by two important factors. The decline in the dollar index to around 100 level and the expectation of further weakness in the dollar are nudging FIIs away from the US to emerging markets like India. Besides, both the US and China are likely to report subdued growth this year, while India is expected to clock a growth rate of 6 per cent in FY26 even in an unfavourable global environment. This relative outperformance of India in growth can lead to outperformance in the market, too. Therefore, the FII buying trend can sustain even in this uncertain environment.”