Weekly Commentary – 18th October 2019

All Green Week. Nifty50 posted a 3.2% gain over last Friday’s closing. amidst optimism. Midcap and Smallcap gained 4.3% and 3.2% respectively. Amongst sectoral indices, Auto (+7.8%), Realty (+6.3%) and Pharma (+4.5%) gained handsomely. 

Market Updates:

• India worked on fundamentals: IMF – IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said that there has been a very strong growth in India over the last years and the IMF is projecting reasonably strong growth for the country. However, she added ‘like the rest of the world, India is experiencing a slowdown. So slightly over six per cent is what we expect to see in 2019.’ The IMF had trimmed India’s growth forecast by 90 basic points to 6.1%.
• Trade negotiations between India, US to conclude soon: Sitharaman  – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that trade negotiations between India and the US are going well and will conclude sooner than expected. She also said that India is keen on a fair and reasonable trade deal in which its request for market access is secured while also addressing the trade deficit issue raised by the US.
• Finance Minister promises more reforms before the end of FY20 to boost growth – Expressing optimism over India’s growth Finance Minister has said that the government’s vision of making India a $5 trillion economy and a global economic powerhouse by 2024-25 is ‘challenging’ but ‘realisable’ and highlighted that more reforms are on the anvil before the close of the fiscal year.