Heavy buying likely ...

The Dalal street may witness a heavy buying spree with a sector-specific rally in the week ahead when blue-chips like TCS and Wipro announce their first quarter results, analysts said.

The benchmark BSE Sensex added more than 300 points last week and touched an intra-day high of 15,330.73 before settling at a record high of 15,272.72. Market analysts said it may cross 15,500 mark in the next few trading sessions.

Domestic brokerage Religare expects a disappointing performance from IT companies on the back of the appreciating rupee against all major currencies, especially the US dollar.

The new week would open with earnings announcement of the country's biggest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services and third-largest Wipro. Religare forecasts the firms would revisit their rupee guidance for the year.

Last week, IT major Infosys came out with its first quarter results and lowered its rupee guidance for the year. Indian IT companies earn more than half of their revenues from
the US market and have been facing a margin squeeze as the rupee has gained over 9 per cent against the dollar since the beginning of 2007.

Another heavyweight and a recent entrant on the bourses DLF is also scheduled to report its quarterly results on July 19. The stock has witnessed strong buying activity in the past week with its market cap crossing the Rs 1,00,000 crore mark.