Stocks may trade sideways next week as investors prefer to hold lighter positions as the year draws to an end while caution is likely to prevail ahead of monthly sales data for cement and auto firms, say experts.
Traders feel benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty will consolidate further after adding a robust 30 per cent in 2014 so far -- the best rally since 2009.
Cues to watch out for in the year-end week include overseas investment trend, rupee's moves against the US dollar, crude oil price and trend in global markets.
"This week we have HSBC Manufacturing PMI data, which is scheduled to be released on January 2, 2015. Besides, auto and cement companies also are expected to be in limelight as these companies report their monthly sales figure," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
Vivek Gupta, CMT - Director Research, CapitalVia Global Research said, "Movement of rupee, trend of the global market and investment by FII may affect market movement in near term. Automobile stock may remain in focus as most of these companies will declare sales numbers this week."
In the holiday-shortened previous week, the S&P BSE Sensex fell by 130 points to end at 27,241.78. The 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE settled at 8,200.70, a net fall of 19.65 points, or 0.24 per cent.
"Amidst lack of fresh cues, we expect the markets to remain in the range of 8,100-8,550 levels in the medium term and remain sideways for the coming week," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President, Bonanza Portfolio.
Experts said the next major trigger for stocks is third quarter results which will start from second week of January 2015.
"The year 2015 could be an important one in terms of the economic history of this country. It could be the year where we see passage of key reforms which lay the foundations of the sustainable long term economic growth," said Nilesh Shetty, Associate Fund Manager - Equity, Quantum Mutual Fund.
