Monetary policy review, Q4 results to drive D-Street

Dalal Street is likely to be volatile this week amid anticipations of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual monetary policy giving a boost to markets, according to analysts.

“Volatility and sharp intra-day swings will continue to be the order of the day. There will be a negative bias to the week ahead and global cues and institutional activities will decide the course of action,” said Arun Kejriwal, director of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services.

According to experts, RBI is likely to keep the key policy rates static in its 2009-10 monetary policy review on Tuesday.

“No major boost to the liquidity inflow is expected from RBI this time. Mostly, RBI would remain numb about any interest rate cut, so no major movement in the stock market is anticipated,” according to Paras Bothra, research head of Ashika Stock Brokers.

Others added that, as the global momentum is slowing down, the domestic markets might head towards a correction.

“Last week, we saw the US markets struggling to gain ground. Worldwide, markets would witness a brief correction as they have gone up swiftly in the past six weeks,” SMC Global Vice-President Rajesh Jain said. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark index, Sensex, gained 2.03 per cent or 219 points during the week and closed at 11,023.09 on Friday.

Analysts feel that with major corporate houses, including Reliance Industries (RIL), set to announce their fourth quarter earnings figures this week, investors would keep their fingers crossed to invest in specified counters. RIL would announce its three-month earnings figure on April 23, while ICICI Bank would announce it on April 25.