Stock market to take cues from corporate earnings this week

On the last trading of the week, the 30-share Sensex ended up 80.4 points at 25,642 and the 50-share Nifty gained 23 points to end at 7,664. The broader markets under-performed their large counterparts as the BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices lost 0.42 per cent and 0.12 per cent respectively. The market breadth ended negative on the BSE.

For the entire week Sensex was up 2.47 per cent. Most of the gains were garnered on the July 15, 2014, as the government had released data at the end of the session on July 14, 2014, showing easing inflation in the month of June.

"The week saw benchmark indices rise by about 3 per cent as concerns on crude price eased. Monsoon also progressed during the week, easing worries on inflation. Quarterly results, especially from IT majors, were above estimates and improved sentiments," says Dipen Shah, Head-Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.

Since the Budget is over, the markets will likely continue to focus on issues like monsoons, global economy and quarterly results in the short term.

Shah says: "Off-budget action on Budget initiatives will sustain the confidence of the markets over the medium term. Markets will also look forward to the rate action from RBI in its next policy. We expect RBI to keep rates unchanged, until inflationary pressures ease significantly."

The sectoral indices ended with a mixed bag. While the top gainers were the BSE IT, Bankex and Capital goods indices, the top losers were the BSE Power, Realty and Consumer Durables indices

HDFC Securities in its weekly report has written "Traders need to watch if the Nifty can cross the immediate resistances of 7,684 for the upsides to continue. Else, selling pressure could resume early next week."