Will Sensex, Nifty continue their bull run or consolidate? 4 factors to watch out for this week

The massive rally in Sensex and Nifty toned down slightly last week as profit booking and brief spikes in oil prices kept the bullish sentiment in check, although strong FII buying and resilient corporate earnings helped the benchmark indices close with weekly gains.

The explosive rally seen in the Indian stock market this month so far hit the brakes on Friday, November 13, with Sensex and Nifty dropping up to 0.6% as a resurgence in global AI trade along with other factors dampened sentiment.

Sensex dropped 319 points to close at 81,592 while Nifty 50 fell over 155 points to end the session at 25,144. This came after the benchmark indices recorded sharp gains for 10 consecutive sessions, excluding the short one-hour Muhurat Trading session on Sunday that is typically marked by low volumes.


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Here are 4 key factors that D-Street investors will watch out for:

1) FII buying

Foreign investors' buying spree strongly continues, with FII remaining net buyers of Indian equities for the tenth consecutive session on Friday, buying shares worth Rs 5,736.55 crore, according to provisional data on NSE. They net bought Indian shares worth nearly Rs 89,515 crore during this buying streak since late October.

The sharp surge in FII’s net purchases on Dalal Street comes after they sold a record Rs 2.95 lakh crore worth of Indian stocks in the first 10 months of 2026, rattling the market. Whether the trend continues this week will be one of the key factors to watch.

2) Oil prices

The seesaw political game in the Middle East remains muted but not absent. US President Donald Trump last week said he believes the war in Iran "is effectively over”, easing some worries which in turn lead to some drop in oil prices. However, fresh attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure and shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz threatened global oil flows, leading to a rebound in oil prices.

Brent crude currently hovers near $96 per barrel.

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3) Nvidia earnings

Nvidia has been at the centre of a storm after the controversy surrounding CEO Jensen Huang’s extramarital affair. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang openly admitted that he has been in an intimate relationship with a business executive whom US intelligence reportedly alleged was a Chinese spy, leading to the company launching an investigation into the reports. This has led to a sharp selloff in Nvidia shares, wiping off around billions from its market value in a week.

All eyes are now on the chipmaker’s quarterly earnings announcement scheduled for Tuesday, November 17. This may lead to some swings in the AI trade, which in turn may impact India, which is being seen to have the so-called ‘anti-AI’ advantage.

4) Rate hike expectations

The market will likely begin pricing rate hike expectations by the Reserve Bank of India this week, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments. India’s retail inflation accelerated to 6.09% in October, compared with 5.54% in September, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Thursday. This marks the 12th straight month of consumer prices accelerating in the country. The October reading shows inflation has now breached the Reserve Bank of India's target range of 2-6%.

The rising inflationary numbers comes while an increasing number of economists expect the RBI to announce interest rate hike during its upcoming meeting in December. While a 25 basis points increase is expected by most, few analysts also warn that a 50 basis point cut cannot be ruled out.

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What lies ahead for Dalal Street?

Indian equities caught their breath after last week's blistering rally, trading in a narrow range with a positive bias through a holiday-shortened week, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments. He noted that steady foreign inflows and better-than-expected Q2 earnings, which have raised hopes of upgrades to FY27 estimates, absorbed bouts of profit booking, and the benchmarks closed the week marginally higher.

Inflation, however, returned to centre stage. A hotter-than-expected US CPI print cemented bets on a December Fed hike, while hawkish Fed remarks pushed global yields higher. At home, retail inflation jumped to a two-year high, breaching the RBI's upper tolerance limit as food prices surged. Fears of further tightening snapped a three-session winning run at the end of the week.

Beneath the muted headline, risk appetite held firm, according to Vijayakumar. Mid- and small-caps outperformed, and money rotated out of defensive pharma into banks, financials, autos and realty. Foreign investors drove a shift into large-cap financials rather than broad index chasing. IT struggled under a firmer rupee and the prospect of higher-for-longer global rates, while metals also lagged. Banks, realty and autos took the brunt of the late-week selling.

The analyst from Geojit Investments expects near-term consolidation with a cautious lean. “Investors should stay selective, favouring large-caps with earnings visibility and using dips to accumulate,” he said.

Disclaimer: This article has been written by Debaroti Adhikary, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Debaroti Adhikary and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimershere.