Week Ahead

The Sensex lost 1,100 points, or 1.9 percent, to close the week at 58,339, and the Nifty50 fell 309 points, or 1.7 percent, to 17,476. The Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 1.3 percent and the smallcap 100 slipped 1.5 percent.

Technology, auto, banks, financial services, metal and infra stocks weighed down the market, while energy bucked the trend by rising 2.5.

We expect consolidation to continue in the coming week. "As no major global or domestic macroeconomic events are expected next week, stock-specific movements will be more pronounced.

Investors and traders will keep monitoring corporate earnings, with heavyweight Infosys, TCS and HDFC Bank coming out with their numbers in the week gone by.

As we enter the second week of the March quarter earnings, more than 50 companies will release their quarterly numbers during the week. These include ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies, Mindtree, Nestle India, ACC, L&T Infotech, Mastek, Angel One, ICICI Securities, Tata Elxsi, Cyient, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, L&T Technology Services, Tata Communications, Hindustan Zinc, Sundram Fasteners, and Tejas Networks.

The war is going to be another key thing to watch out for as the fighting between Ukraine and Russia is likely to intensify during the week.

Technically Nifty managed to hold on to the 20-day simple moving average (17,471) and also defended the weekly low of around 17,440, which could act as immediate support, followed by the next support area of 200-day SMA (17,158), while 18,100-18,150 could remain as key hurdles.