State of listlessness seen to stalk stock markets

“Trading will be sideways this week but downside is limited. The market will see gradual crawling movement with a positive bias,” they added.

The March quarter advance tax payment numbers, which are expected tomorrow, if good, will give a push to the market, they noted.

“The market rallied quite a lot after the Union Budget. It is now consolidating. Advance tax numbers will act as a domestic trigger for short term,” they observed.
The US Federal Open Market Committee meeting on March 16 to discuss the monetary-policy strategy and to give a description of the economy is also keenly awaited, they pointed out. The BSE Sensex rose for fifth straight week, its biggest stretch of weekly gains since June 2009. The key index gained one per cent to close at 17,166.62 points over the week even as traders booked profit on select stocks.

Analysts said there is no clear trigger for the market to move either ways, but a slight negative news can pull stocks down, although positive news is not driving it forward.
“The good industrial production figures failed to boost the market as concerns of imminent interest rate hike dampened sentiment. However, any kind of bad news will pull the market down,” they said.

Last week, the US$2 billion follow on public offer (FPO) of state-run NMDC was subscribed 1.25 times, besides the Rs 128 crore initial share sale offer of animation firm DQ Entertainment was subscribed 85 times.
On Friday the Wall Street ended mixed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average settling 0.12 per cent higher at 10,624.69. While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended 0.02 per cent and 0.03 per cent down.
Press Trust of India