Indian stocks off to a muted start Wednesday

New Delhi [India]: Indian stock indices traded largely steady at the opening bell on Wednesday after having rallied over the past couple of sessions or so. Benchmark Sensex and Nifty were a tad up at the time of filing this report.

Snapping two weeks of cumulative losses, the Indian stock indices regained some of their lost ground last week, in line with their global peers. On a cumulative basis, the indices gained 1.4 per cent each over the course of Monday-Friday.

According to VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, stable global markets along with declining Brent crude prices are indicators that the market doesn’t expect the Israel-Gaza conflict to aggravate into a wider regional conflict.

“In brief, the market construct is favourable for the continuation of the rally despite the geopolitical uncertainties,” Vijayakumar noted.

“There is no selling pressure in the broader market since FII selling is confined to large caps. The best opportunity for long-term investors is in high-quality large caps since these stocks will do well when FIIs eventually turn buyers.”

The US Federal Reserve keeping the key policy rate unchanged for the second straight time at 5.25-5.50 per cent, as was widely expected, has been boosting the stocks globally. US jobs data for October showing that it slowed more than expected raised hopes that the US Federal Reserve may be done with its interest rate hiking spree.

Global crude oil prices will be a key monitorable after key oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia reportedly confirmed on Sunday they would continue with their additional voluntary oil output cuts until the end of 2023, amid the conflict in West Asia.

Comments from key US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, particularly on its monetary policy outlook will also be a key monitorable for investors.