Finance1 min read

Pulse of the Street: Dalal Street’s winning streak faces an inflation test

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The Nifty advanced 0.45% and the Sensex added 0.69% over the week, with financial services, realty, and capital goods providing the primary upward momentum. Despite these gains, Indian equity markets lagged regional Asian peers like Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea amid lingering global technology sector uncertainties. The market's near-term stability is now pressured by retail inflation surging to 6.09%, primarily driven by an 8.94% spike in food prices. These escalating inflationary pressures raise the likelihood of another central bank interest rate hike in December, following October's 25-basis-point increase.

Key points

  • Heavy domestic institutional selling reflects active profit booking and cash accumulation…: Heavy domestic institutional selling reflects active profit booking and cash accumulation rather than an underlying loss of market confidence.
  • Persistent food price increases threaten to force an additional interest rate increase by…: Persistent food price increases threaten to force an additional interest rate increase by the central bank during its December meeting.
  • Elevated borrowing costs and inflation risks are poised to create pronounced near-term vo…: Elevated borrowing costs and inflation risks are poised to create pronounced near-term volatility across rate-sensitive market sectors.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

MUMBAI: Indian equities extended their winning streak to a third consecutive week, supported by stronger corporate earnings and sustained foreign buying. But the rally lost momentum, with rising inflation and continued domestic institutional selling raising questions about its durability.

The Nifty fell 0.6% on Friday to close at 25,144.30, while the Sensex declined 0.4% to 81,592.44. For the week, however, the indices gained 0.45% and 0.69%, respectively, following a nearly 9% surge in the previous week.

Improving earnings offered support, with capital goods, financial services and realty stocks leading sectoral gains. But persistent domestic institutional selling and uncertainty over interest rates suggest the market faces a tougher test after its sharp rebound.

The performance marked a sharp improvement from Q1FY27, when revenue grew 18.6% and profit 9%. In Q2FY26, revenue and profit had increased 6.1% and 12.2%, respectively.

Nikunj Saraf, chief executive officer of Choice Wealth, said the durability of earnings growth mattered more than a single strong quarter. He favoured banking and financial services, automobiles, capital goods and industrials, citing domestic demand, credit growth and infrastructure spending.

“However, investors…

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