Dalal Street is expected to witness a volatile and stock-specific rally in the week ahead fuelled by corporate earnings and may scale the 19,000-milestone in its stride, analysts say.

“This week would be volatile and movement would be based on corporate results and 19,000 milestone could be achieved any day,” a market analyst said.

The BSE Sensex gained over 1,000 points during the week to end at 18,419.04 point on Friday. It had also breached the intra-day peak of 18,844.62 points during the week.

The markets had been stretched over the past few days buckling under pressure from disappointing results from Infosys and other factors and this could continue this week as well, an analyst said.

But the second quarter results mainly hold the key for another bout of surge and the unique factor that can prove to be a very potent trigger for the market upswing.

Decent to strong second quarter results are expected from cement, steel and telecom firms. Cement and steel firms are seen reporting strong second quarter numbers on the back of firm prices whereas robust subscription growth is expected to drive earnings of cellular services providers.

“Sectors such as IT, auto, pharma and textiles are not expected to do well.... currency movements for IT, pharma and textiles, rising cost along-with interest rate hike for auto sector are deterrent factors for their growth,” an analyst observed. Additionally, foreign institutional investors inflow is expected to remain strong due to ample global liquidity further enhanced by US Federal Reserves’ last month steep cut in the key benchmark interest.

Key support

A further cut in interest rate by Fed, if any, will only add to liquidity further which in turn ensure that FII inflow in India and emerging markets remain strong, an analyst with a leading domestic firm said.

Market analysts have a mixed views on the market correction as the short term target of 19K for the Sensex remains intact. Moreover, the key support levels can give the idea of any trend reversal, market analysts said.

According to the analysts, the Sensex is likely to to find key support around 17,825-17,640-17,450 this week and may face resistance around 19,015-19,200-19,385.

Similarly, Nifty made a bearish pattern on Friday and for this week it is likely to face resistance around 5640-5700-5770.