Weekly Newsletter - July 18 2009

After a highly volatile first half, the market appears to be heading for a similarly swinging month at least, as bulls and bears slug it out among themselves. Its all down to quarterly results, which are going to accelerate from next week, and daily dose of news. The market will take directional cues depending on the tone of the corporate earnings and other news flow. Given the fact that the news will be mostly mixed, one should brace for a rollercoaster ride. There will be days when the stocks will fall sharply and there will be days when they will rally. The catalyst(s) could be local and global.

It will of course be tough to catch the swings on either side, especially the timing. So, the best approach is to take it day-by-day. We expect a broadly rangebound market with no specific bias at least in the near term. If one looks at a little further ahead - medium to long term - the outlook is positive. However, concerns still remain on monsoon's overall progress and its fallout on rural demand, which apparently is what the Government and the market too is betting big on. We also cannot ignore the global factors, though strong domestic consumption will ensure another year of decent growth for India.

Key results to be announced next week: Essar Oil, IDFC, JSW Steel, Mercator Lines, Mindtree, RCF, Triveni Engineering, Dr. Reddy's, Ultratech Cement, Thermax, Yes Bank, LIC Housing Finance, Renuka Sugars, OBC, HDFC, BHEL, Canara Bank, Wipro, India Cements, IFCI, Hindustan Zinc, Tech Mahindra, ONGC, ACC, Maruti, Ambuja Cements, Siemens, Biocon, ITC, Apollo Tyres, MRPL, Alstom Projects, Union Bank, United Phosphorus, GSPL, Idea, Bharti Airtel, Marico, Balrampur Chini, RIL, Ranbaxy, HCC, Shree Cement, GAIL, Bharat Electronics, Jet Airways, CESC, RPL, ICICI Bank, HUL, JP Associates and Godrej Consumer.