Auto, cement stocks will be in focus on monthly sales data

Results of monthly surveys on manufacturing and services sectors and automobile and cement sales data for December 2012 will be in focus next week. Auto and cement stocks will be focus as companies from these two sectors will start unveiling monthly sales data for November 2012 from Tuesday, 1 January 2013. Markit Economics will unveil HSBC India Manufacturing PMI, which gauges the business activity of India's factories, for December 2012 on Wednesday, 2 January 2013. The HSBC manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which gauges the business activity of India's factories but not its utilities, rose to 53.7 in November 2012 from 52.9 in October 2012. Readings above 50 denote growth. Markit Economics will unveil HSBC India Services PMI and HSBC India Composite PMI for December 2012 on Friday, 4 January 2013. The HSBC services Purchasing Managers' Index, based on a survey of around 400 companies, fell to 52.1 in November 2012 from October's 53.8, to register a 13-month low. Services make up nearly 60% of India's economic output. Indian companies will start unveiling Q3 December 2012 results from mid-January 2013. Investors and analysts will closely watch the management commentary that would accompany the result which could cause revision in their future earnings forecast of the company for the current year and or next year. Infosys announces Q3 results on 11 January 2013. Bajaj Auto unveils Q3 results on 16 January 2013. HDFC Bank unveils Q3 results on 18 January 2013. HDFC unveils Q3 results on 21 January 2013. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) undertakes Third Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2012-13 on 29 January 2013. RBI kept its key policy rate viz. the repo rate unchanged at 8% after mid-quarter monetary policy review on 18 December 2012. The central bank said that in view of inflation pressures ebbing, monetary policy has to increasingly shift focus and respond to the threats to growth from this point onwards. Liquidity conditions will be managed with a view to supporting growth as stated in the Second Quarter Review (SQR) of Monetary Policy 2012-13 on 30 October 2012, thereby preparing the ground for further shifting the policy stance to support growth, RBI said. Overall, recent inflation patterns and projections provide a basis for reinforcing October guidance about policy easing in the fourth quarter, RBI said. However, risks to inflation remain and accordingly, even as the policy emphasis shifts towards growth, the policy stance will remain sensitive to these risks, RBI said. RBI said it is closely monitoring the evolving growth-inflation dynamic and will update the formal numerical assessment of its growth and inflation projections for 2012-13 as part of the third quarter review in January 2013. It remains to be seen if the Union Budget for 2013-2014 due in February 2013 is a reformist budget or a populist budget. Given that next general elections in India must be held before May 2014, it will be the last full-fledged budget of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and hence could be a populist one. Among key global events, Markit Economics will unveil China's final manufacturing PMI for December 2012 on Monday, 31 December 2012. Data released by Markit Economics on 14 December 2012 showed that the HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI had risen to fourteen-month high of 50.9 in December 2012. Markit Economics will unveil final US Manufacturing PMI for December 2012 on Wednesday, 2 January 2013. Data released by Markit Economics on 14 December 2012 showed that the Markit Flash US Manufacturing PMI had risen to eight-month high of 54.2 in December 2012. Investors will continue focusing on US fiscal cliff. President Barack Obama and lawmakers are launching a last-chance round of budget talks just days before a New Year's deadline to reach a deal or watch the economy go off a "fiscal cliff." Obama will meet congressional leaders from both parties at the White House on Friday, 28 December 2012, to try to revive negotiations to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts - together worth $600 billion - that will begin to take effect on 1 January 2013. In order to be ready to legislate if an agreement takes shape, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives convened a session for Sunday, 30 December 2012. The US fiscal cliff refers to the year-end deadline for the expiration of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tax cuts and the triggering of $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts, if the US Congress fails to act. The US Congress created the hazardous deadline of 31 December 2012 in August 2011, when it agreed to a deficit deal as a way out of a deadlock over raising the US debt ceiling. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the US economy would drop into a recession in the first half of the new year if a deal is not reached.