Sluggish start seen...earnings to hold sway

"Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesn't come before." - Shelby Steele.

May hasn’t provided too many opportunities to investors as far as the Indian equities are concerned. It has been a hard grind with the key indices down 5-6%. FIIs have been net sellers amid concerns that sticky inflation will hit economic growth and earnings. There have been a few negative surprises in Q4 results. Global markets have been wobbly too amid a spate of pressure points.



So, we begin the last two days of May amid hope that June turns out to be a better month. The start is likely to be a muted one amid lack of decisive global cues. Asian markets are lackluster after a tepid session on Wall Street. European stocks had a good day though. Markets in the US and UK are shut on Monday.

Meanwhile, monsoon has Kerala two days ahead of schedule. Market players will closely follow the Q4 GDP data, monthly auto sales, manufacturing PMI and exports figures during the course of the week. A close above 5520 levels for the week could provide confirmation of a trend reversal.

Globally, investors will keep eye on China’s manufacturing PMI and US jobs data. Movement in the dollar and commodities will also be watched.

Cairn India, Sesa Goa and ONGC will be in focus after the GoM approved the Cairn Energy-Vedanta deal and referred the same to the CCEA. ONGC will also announce its annual results today.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 2.22bn in the cash segment on Thursday, according to the provisional NSE data. The domestic institutional institutions (DIIs) were net buyers at Rs 3.88bn on the same day. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net buyers of Rs 29bn. The foreign funds were net sellers of Rs 12.22bn in the cash segment on Thursday, as per SEBI web site.

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