A chart of a single stock contains only that stock. Everything determining the conditions it trades in — the cost of money, the value of the rupee, the price of energy — lives on other charts entirely, and those charts frequently move first.
The four markets and how they connect
| Market | Watch | Effect on equities |
|---|---|---|
| Bonds | 10-year government yield | Rising yields raise discount rates and hurt long-duration growth stocks; help bank margins |
| Currency | USDINR | Weak rupee helps IT and pharma exporters, hurts importers and oil companies |
| Commodities | Crude, metals | Input costs for autos, paints, aviation; revenue for producers |
| Volatility | India VIX | Rising VIX signals a risk-off shift; trend systems suffer, ranges widen |
You can study one boat closely — its hull, its sails, its crew. None of that tells you the tide is going out, and the tide will decide whether it moves today.
Rates and currency are the tide. A perfect chart pattern on an exporter matters far less than what the rupee did this week, and no amount of studying that one chart reveals it.
Reading rotation
Money moves between sectors as conditions change, and those movements are more predictable than individual stock moves because they follow the underlying economics.
- Banks — margins expand on higher rates
- IT and pharma — dollar revenue worth more
- Value and cash-generating businesses hold up
- Expensive growth de-rates
- Growth and high-multiple names re-rate upward
- Rate-sensitive sectors — autos, real estate, NBFCs
- Importers and oil marketing benefit
- Exporters face a currency headwind
Rotation shows up as relative strength long before it shows up in the news. Compare sectors against the index rather than against zero.
Using it without overcomplicating it
- 1Note the direction of the 10-year yield
Rising, falling or flat over the last few weeks. You are establishing context, not forecasting.
- 2Note USDINR and crude
Same question. Together these three explain a large share of sector performance.
- 3Check which sectors lead and lag
Relative strength against the index. Confirm it agrees with what the rates and currency picture would predict.
- 4Bias your watchlist accordingly
Not a signal to trade — a tilt. Prefer long setups in sectors the macro backdrop supports, and be more sceptical of setups fighting it.
The 10-year yield has risen sharply. Which group is most likely to underperform?
Naav kitni bhi achhi ho, agar dhaara ulti hai toh aage badhna mushkil hai. Rupee, crude aur byaaj dar wahi dhaara hain. IT stock ka chart perfect ho, par rupee mazboot ho gaya toh woh nahi bhaagega. Isiliye chart se pehle ek nazar in teeno pe daal lena kaafi hota hai.
- Rates, currency, commodities and volatility set the conditions equities trade in.
- Rising yields hurt expensive long-duration growth most and often help banks.
- A weak rupee helps exporters and hurts importers — it redistributes rather than lifting everything.
- Crude matters unusually much in India because it drives inflation, the current account and the rupee at once.
- Use intermarket context to size and filter trades, not to generate them.
Mark it done to track your progress through the curriculum.
Common questions
Short, direct answers to what people ask about this topic.
- intermarket analysis meaning
- Intermarket analysis is reading bonds, currencies, commodities and volatility to understand the conditions equities are trading in, rather than studying the equity chart alone. The cost of money, the value of the rupee and the price of energy set the backdrop for every sector, and those markets frequently move before the stocks they affect. It supplies context, not entry signals.
- a sharp rise in the 10-year government bond yield generally hurts
- Expensive growth stocks the most — companies whose valuation rests on profits many years away, because a higher discount rate cuts the present value of distant cash flows hardest. Banks often move the other way, since higher rates can widen lending margins. The effect follows the shape of a company’s cash flows rather than the quality of its latest results.
- why do IT and pharma stocks rise when the rupee weakens
- Because they earn a large share of their revenue in dollars, and each dollar converts into more rupees when the rupee weakens, lifting reported revenue and margins with no change in the underlying business. The same move works against importers, oil marketing companies and anyone buying inputs abroad. A currency move redistributes value between sectors rather than lifting all of them.
- what does a rising India VIX tell a trader
- A rising India VIX means the options market is pricing in bigger swings ahead, which usually accompanies a risk-off shift — ranges widen, trends break more often, and systems built for smooth trending conditions struggle. VIX measures expected volatility, not direction, so a high reading tells you how violent the moves may be and nothing about which way they go.
- why does crude oil matter so much for Indian equity markets
- India imports the large majority of the oil it consumes, so a move in crude feeds into inflation, the current account and the rupee at the same time — three channels that reach almost every listed sector. Directly, crude is an input cost for paints, tyres, aviation and chemicals, and revenue for producers. That triple linkage makes it a larger macro variable here than in most equity markets.