What in your view are the big stock market triggers for the coming week starting on 28th March 2022?

Here are some of the major stock market triggers for the coming week.

· The Nifty ended 77 bps lower during the week, but the fall was arrested at the 17,000 levels of the Nifty with support from metal stocks. However, a very hawkish Fed statement is likely to keep the pressure on rate sensitive stocks in the market like banks, non-banking financial companies, automobiles etc.

· The near resolution of the Zee Invesco issue should come as a big positive for the media stocks in India. In addition, the big multiplex merger of PVR and Inox will be another big boost as it shows a consolidated method of moving ahead in the post pandemic world. The combination can best address revenge buying, positive for both players.

· With civilian casualties rising, the focus again shifts to the Ukraine war and the hardening of sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine urged OPEC to hike gas and oil output to offset the Russia impact, but that looks unlikely since Russia is a key OPEC partner. Not surprisingly, Brent prices rallied by sharply during the week.

· Among market underlying cues, FIIs sold Rs.46,962 crore in Mar-22 month of which nearly Rs.5,300 crore of equities were sold in the previous week alone. VIX tapered to 22 levels, but option data still shows big volatility divergence. For instance, traders are betting on a broad range of 16,000 to 18,000 on the Nifty, based on call / put OI.

· Major macro data flows likely this week. Auto numbers for Mar-22 are likely positive other than for Maruti and Hyundai. The bigger area of interest would be core sector growth to be put out on Thursday will give an idea of high frequency infra momentum. Other data points watch for Fiscal deficit for Feb-22 and CAD for Dec-21 quarter.

· In global data points, US market focus on core House price index, JOLTS, Q4 GDP, Crude stocks, personal spending, jobless claims, March PMI. For rest of the world, the data focus to be on EU Unemployment, inflation; Japan BOJ summary, retail sales, housing starts; China March PMI.