Hindustan Unilever,
and Bajaj Finance are among those scheduled to announce their results for the quarter ended December this week. Markets will also react to the earnings of and HDFC Bank on Monday.
Technical charts indicate Nifty could likely touch 18,450 in the coming week.
Ruchit Jain, lead – research at 5paisa.com, said the support base for the short term is now around the 18,000-mark for Nifty and any dip towards this support should be used as a buying opportunity. “On the higher side 18,400-18,500 would be the immediate range to look out for,” he said.
Some in the market expect Nifty to test new highs before the Union budget on February 1.
“One can expect a new all-time high in Nifty before the budget with support placed at 17,950 and 17,700,” said Rahul Sharma, director and head – technical derivatives research at JM Financial Services.
Both Sensex and Nifty had ended flat on Friday at 61,223.03 and 18,255.75, respectively. However, for the week, benchmark indices gained 2.5%, outperforming most regional peers except China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
Sensex is now 1.7% away from the record high of 62,245.43 hit on October 19 and Nifty is off 1.91% from the record high of 18,604.45 hit on the same date.
At 21 times, Nifty’s 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio is now at a 37% premium to its 16-year average.
“Nifty is unlikely to hit new highs before the budget though we are not very far from those levels. Markets abroad are not very supportive as inflation and interest rate hike related worries are keeping sentiment down there,” said Deepak Jasani, head-retail research at HDFC Securities.
“Markets have a chance to hit new highs post-budget depending on the budget provisions. No big surprises on earnings so far, but the IT sector has reported strong numbers and has been good on the guidance front thus far,” said Jasani.
