Cues that will decide market trend this week

Moneycontrol Bureau

Wall Street remained nervous on Friday on Greek concerns. The Dow slipped nearly 90 points, while the S&P and Nasdaq snapped a 5-week winning streak. Europe too ended the week lower.

Japan's economy shrank a bigger-than-expected 0.6% in October-December, hurt by slowing global growth, Thai floods and a strong yen. On an annualized basis, the economy shrank 2.3%, against a 1.4% contraction expected. This also led to fear about growth resuming this quarter as Europe's debt crisis clouds the outlook.

The Greek government has approved the austerity bill. A scene of violence and chaos gripped Athens as protest against austerity measures turned ugly.  The move sets out 3.3 billion euro in job, pension and wage cuts this year. Prime minister Lucas Papademos, in a televised speech, explained that the situation in Greece called for such tough measures.

Standard & Poor's has downgraded 34 Italian banks, including its largest bank, Unicredit. Italy was downgraded by S&P to BBB+ from 'A' in January.

In the currency space, the euro gained after the Greek parliament approved an austerity bill needed to secure an international bailout, though market players expect rougher going before lenders seal bailout deals for the country.

In commodities, oil prices fell on Friday, but posted gains for the week. Brent crude prices are hovering around the USD 118 mark.

Meanwhile, gold fell hurt by a slide in the euro.

And back home, for our market, it was a sluggish session with the Nifty closing around 5,381.

A look at some stock specific action:

Reliance Communication disappointed the street with profits coming in below estimates at Rs 186 crore. DLF too sees a big slip in profit. Suzlon will also be in focus as its losses expand in Q3 to nearly Rs 290 crore. The company revises its guidance lower .

And in results to watch today, banking major State Bank of India may clock 8% jump in profit and 18% NII gains, while slippages may see a sequential decline.

From the commodity space, Coal India could see almost 50% jump in profits. SAIL, Sun Pharma & Punj Lloyd are among the other key numbers today.

Reliance Industries has pulled off a mega overseas bond issue. RIL's US subsidiary, Reliance Holdings raised USD 1 billion selling 10-year dollar-denominated debt at an attractive rate of 5.4%. The issue was subscribed over 8 times.
 
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