Markets have been trading sideways ahead of the meetings of the two major global central banks – the US Federal Reserve and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – over the next couple of weeks. Market experts expect natural profit-taking to happen with rising markets, but do not see any meaningful correction unless there is a more aggressive taper stance by the US Fed.
They are cautiously optimistic on markets for 2021, on surplus global liquidity, and benign interest rates. The US Federal Reserve (US Fed), prior to the pandemic, had an outstanding balance sheet size of $4.2 trillion as of December 2019, which doubled in size to $8.3 trillion. Likewise, the European Central Bank (ECB), which had a pre-pandemic balance sheet size of 4.7 trillion euros also saw a similar proportional increase in size to 8.2 trillion euros. This liquidity is providing support to asset inflation in high-risk asset classes, including emerging equities like India.
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