Investors are confident the Federal Reserve will raise rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, followed the day after by half-point hikes from the Bank of England and European Central Bank, and any deviation from that script would be a real shock.

Physical gold dealers in India offered the steepest discounts in 10 months last week to lure customers, as a sharp rally in local prices squeezed demand in the world's second-biggest bullion consumer.

However, it remained on track for a fourth straight monthly loss of 1.5%, pressured downward by expectations that the Fed was nearing the end of its rate-hike cycle and that interest rates would not have to rise as high as previously feared.

Adani Group told Reuters in a statement on Saturday that the sale remains on schedule at the planned issue price, even as sources said bankers on the country's largest secondary share sale were considering extending the timeline beyond Jan. 31, or tweaking the price due to the fall in its share price.

China resumes business this week after its Lunar New Year holidays. The number of passengers travelling prior to the holidays rose above levels in the past two years but is still below 2019, Citi analysts said in a note, citing data from the Ministry of Transport.

In a detailed point-by-point rebuttal, the group maintained that the charges levelled in the report appeared to be "selective and manipulative presentation of matters already in the public domain to create a false narrative". It also shows complete ignorance or deliberate disregard for applicable legal and accounting standards as well as industry practices, the group said.

The report said the Carmichael project's rail assets were transferred from AEL to the promoter's private company and the latter immediately wrote off their value, implying that AEL overstated revenue. However, AEL had fully booked the write-off on its books and the family company simply copied that accounting, as per the advice of the relevant auditor. "This is not ignorance or a mistake but a deliberate attempt to mislead," he said.

In response to a 106-page report by Hindenburg, the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate has issued a 413-page long response answering all the 88 questions asked by the US-based research firm. Hindenburg took “short positions” and then, to effect a downward spiral of share price and make a wrongful gain, Hindenburg published a document to manipulate and depress the price of stock, and create a false market," Adani said.

India’s stocks now account for more than 14% of MSCI’s emerging-market equities index, trailing only China, after it surpassed the weightings of Taiwan and South Korea last year. Morgan Stanley predicts India’s equity market is set to be the world’s third largest before the end of the decade. The downfall of one of India’s most-sprawling businesses could be what holds the nation back as it competes against China as an investment magnet.

In the equity segment, exchange traded funds (ETFs) daily average turnover stood at Rs 470 crores in CY2022, an increase of 51% YoY. Sovereign Gold Bonds daily average turnover in the secondary market stood at Rs 7 crores in CY 2022, an increase of 59% YoY. Government securities which have been made available in the equity segment of NSE is also seeing significant growth, albeit on a lower base with volumes touching a daily average turnover of Rs 3 crores in the last month.

From the rollover perspective, Nifty has started the new series with six-month low open interest ahead of crucial events. At the same time, Nifty near month premium remained on higher side amid high VIX (17%), which need to be subside significantly from current levels. We believe post events, we may see decline in volatility and premium both, which should provide support to the market.

In an interview to PTI, Singh said the group will release a comprehensive response to the Hindenburg report, "providing documentary evidence" to "clearly outline that there was no research done and that there wasn't any investigating reporting. Only pure baseless misrepresentation of factual situations, if not lies." The selloff in Adani stocks is being looked into by market regulator Sebi and stock exchanges.

"It is widely acknowledged that India remains at risk tactically because of the need to fund increased positions in China but there is widespread agreement that India remains the best long-term equity story in the Asia and emerging market context. To deal with this conundrum, investors seem to be reducing exposure to high PE Indian consumer discretionary stocks rather than reducing core bank holdings. This makes sense to GREED & fear, most particularly as Indian banks are looking cheap relative to the Indian market."

"I am a Nifty Bank option seller but whenever I find momentum in Nifty, I buy Nifty futures. The strategy there is to hold for 2 months. Sometimes if the market is trending, you may not get anything by selling options. Then you have to sell in the money option or buy options with the right position sizing. Mostly, in a mild market, non-directional option selling works. But if the market is trending, then I am ready to go in futures or option buying as well."

"After three weeks of good consolidation, Nifty index has given a major range breakdown. With good volumes, Nifty has broken down from the 18200- 17800 levels, indicating that bears are in control. Around 17550, Nifty took a minor support at its 200 EMA. To resume its upward rally, Nifty needs to close above 17750 - 17800; until then, this could be a sell on every rise opportunity in the Index,” Ameya Ranadive, Equity Research Analyst, Choice Broking.

The Single Family Office (SFO) structures are designed to help establishment of these Family Offices without the requirement of any license or become registered to provide fund management services to the investment vehicles held by a ultra-high net worth family.

In 2020, the government realised the lacunas of the previous initiatives, came back to the drawing board alongside the ministries and drafted the Production

Back home, inflation has been following a similar trajectory although it has recently been showing signs of peaking off. Since we do not live in an isolated world, global markets including ours will move in a synchronized fashion. No market can remain decoupled from another for long although there may be a lag in market moves.

Although the RBI guidelines seem promising, seamless debt recovery from borrowers is still a far-fetched reality for lenders. One of the major pain points of every lender is irregular payments and loan defaults by borrowers. Since interest is the primary income source for lenders, many commercial banks and regulated entities are facing losses and are becoming reluctant to offer loans in the future due to the piling up of non-performing assets (NPAs).

Key questions for Fed Chair Jerome Powell at his post-meeting press conference will be how much higher the central bank intends to raise rates, and what officials need to see before pausing.

The bank will soon start the process of appointing merchant banks and take opinions about market conditions, he said, adding the bank would take a call on raising funds through equity or bonds. As far as the capital adequacy ratio is concerned, the bank is well capitalised at 15.57 per cent and it can easily take care of business growth this year, he added.

"Friday’s turn of events presents an opportunity in the near-term though. Firstly, we have slipped over 1400 points from the record peak and are at a 3 Standard Deviation (SD) boundary, which suggests that an end to downtrend is nearing. Secondly Nifty PCR (put call ratio) is at 0.67 after Friday’s carnage, and incidentally, the last time we had negative close and sub 1 PCR ahead of Budget, we saw a 4% gain in the 3 days post budget."

Now that the ban on seven agri-commodity futures contracts in India is more than a year, it is becoming difficult for the market participants to get a better price discovery mechanism and also find it difficult to operate in physical commodities without having any hedge platform to cover their price risk

The current tax architecture should be changed to allow for set-off and carry forward of losses in VDAs similar to equity shares/derivatives. The 30% threshold was set in response to comparisons of digital assets with highly speculative avenues such as gambling, betting, and so on. However, VDAs are similar to securities trading and should, therefore, be treated similarly with respect to taxation and setoff benefits.

While announcing its earnings for the third quarter of December 2022, LTIMindtree's board also approved an interim dividend of Rs 20 per share. Shares of LTIMindtree fell nearly 1% to Rs 4,397 apiece on the BSE in Friday's trade. LTI Mindtree is a large-cap IT firm with a market capitalization of Rs 1,30,63 crore.

For FPIs, 2022 was a subdued year in terms of flow and withdrawal from equities after a net investment in the preceding three years.According to the data with the depositories, FPIs have made a net withdrawal of Rs 17,023 crore this month (till January 27).

"We are hoping to reduce debt further by Rs 1,000 crore by end of this fiscal year to about Rs 7000 crore," Lodha said.The company plans to cut debt by Rs 500-800 crore every quarter."We will hope to be close to Rs 5,000 crore of net debt sometime by end of this calendar year," Lodha said.

"As the finance minister of India, there are several steps that can be taken to improve the country's economic situation. By addressing the issues of high inflation, unemployment, increasing foreign investment, improving infrastructure and implementing capital market reforms, the finance minister can help to promote economic growth and improve the lives of citizens."

Results that will be out on January 30 include Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Bajaj Holdings & Investment, GAIL, SRF, Punjab National Bank, REC, Laurus Labs, IIFL Finance, Trident, Exide Industries, Nippon Life India Asset Management, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Welspun as well as Inox Leisure.

Non-banking financial services company Bajaj Finserv is among a range of domestic companies that will announce earnings on Monday. Here are some of the key corporate earnings to watch out for.

“The bear market has been underway for some time and I have said that earlier. It is going to be very selective. The auto index was up on Friday. I think a lot of the previous momentum names will continue to go down and we will have a new rung of leaders coming in. So tough times for the markets.”

While last year’s 20% hit to the S&P 500 was the worst since the financial crisis, it did little to chip away at the bounty laid up by buy-and-hold faithful. That’s evident in the S&P 500’s annualized return over the past 10 years, which stood at 11.7% even at last year’s trough. While down from 16% from a year earlier, the gain was still above the average of 10.6% over any decade since 1927, and beat all but four long-term returns at the end of 13 bear markets.

The group has prepared a response of more than 100 pages and is also seeking legal advice on when to release it, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. While it won’t be before Jan. 31, the people did not specify when the reply would come.

The US Dollar Index continues to defend the crucial support around 101.25. Better than expected US data combined with the somewhat elevated reading of core PCE inflation data would keep the 10-year US yields supported above 3.50%.Core PCE inflation reading is the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation. PCE deflator m-o-m for December came in at 0.1%, which topped the estimates of 0.0%, though it matched the 0.1% reading for November.

"Gold is no longer playing the role of a safe haven during economic crises (as it should have during the Ukraine-Russia War, but did not), nor is it serving as an effective inflation hedge. This is because of trading in gold. Conceptually, depreciation of the INR relative to the USD results in gold prices in INR terms increasing, as India imports a lot of gold."

An over 21% fall in Adani Ports shares in the last two trading days of the week gone by resulted in over Rs 3,000 crore of losses for LIC. In Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the group, LIC incurred a loss of close to Rs 3,300 crore due to a 20% fall in the share price on Wednesday and Friday. Besides these two companies, the country’s largest life insurer holds significant stake in Adani Total Gas, ACC and Ambuja Cements.

That’s about 30k in premium or about 30% of the account size. It won’t even take a 2% gap down open for that option to get halved the next day. Before they even realize, 15k is wiped out and that’s 15% of trading capital

"Banking sector gets very vulnerable if any news comes of even a possibility of some default which may or may not happen. This is one sector which is coming out of the NPA cycle and we do not want another wave to come and hit them. It is a highly vulnerable sector that has moved a lot in the last few quarters and had driven the markets to these levels. And now that sector is taking a knock."

"Pharma is certainly one of the spaces that one should look at because that is one of the space which has not done anything at all. They have only gone down. I think one should definitely look into some of the frontline pharma stocks like Sun Pharma, Lupin, Cipla. I will also be a little more comfortable with something like Larsen & Toubro or Siemens or ABB."

It is unlikely that the ongoing chaos will derail India's rising economy’s long-term story. We have a long way to go and much to achieve. There are many stocks and sectors with high quality and credentials. If you have money on the table, it is a good time to start executing in a calculated manner with a medium to long-term view. If you are a cautious investor, you can wait for the time period and deploy in the future in a SIP manner.

“Friday was a good day and over the next few days, any investor with a time horizon of one year and above can go and buy into these stocks because these companies are doing well and will continue to do well. The banks clearly stand out in that sense because they are down pretty sharply today. "

“The fiasco in the last two days has dampened overall sentiments and certainly disrupted prices across the board,” said Sameet Chavan, chief analyst - technical and derivatives at Angel One. "From an optimist's point of view, it’s good that the market is approaching the Budget on a lighter note, and any favorable outcome would lift the markets higher," Chavan said, but added that any slight disappointment would result in a further aberration in the market.

The Rs 20,000-crore Adani Enterprises FPO, which opened on Friday, received bids for about 1% of the shares on offer, after allegations of governance lapses and price “manipulation” by US activist short-seller Hindenburg Research triggered panic selling in shares of the conglomerate’s companies. The issue runs January 27-31. “There is no change in either the schedule or the issue price,” said an Adani Group spokesperson on Saturday.