Blame it on the world!

All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you.

Though the global markets continue to be in a shambles owing to the nagging worries over the state of the US economy, our market has managed to outperform. If your portfolio is in doldrums, you could blame the world but that does not solve your problem. Over the weekend, we've had more bad news from the US , which may continue to weigh on the sentiment.

Among other things that will have a bearing on the sentiment include: the quarterly results, the mega IPO of Reliance Power ( even dabbhawalas are set to market the issue) and a few others, and of course the month-end meetings of the Federal Reserve and the RBI. Today, we expect a slightly lower opening on the back of weak global cues. Things will remain highly volatile.

The Sensex and the Nifty touched new all-time highs last week on the back of strength in a few index stocks. But, last week was different as we saw the large caps regaining focus while the small-caps and mid-caps witnessed a steep sell off after their gravity-defying rise over the past couple of months. Whether this trend continues or will be some more pain in the non-index counters. The coming days will reveal.

With the global markets not showing any sign of recovery, the bias may turn negative in small-caps and mid-caps for a while. Those who had jumped on the small-cap-and-mid-cap bandwagon should try and get rid of all the junk stuff, even at a loss. Select large caps could continue to do well, based on the emerging news flow and other inexplicable reasons. But be careful as there could be a chance of a small reversal in the near term. Though the Sensex and the Nifty managed to gain last week, the rally was on the back of lower traded volumes and worsening market breadth.

Shares of Porwal Auto Components will get listed on the bourses today.

Results Today: CMC, Dhanlakshmi Bank, Exide, IDFC, KLG Systel, Lok Housing, Monnet Ispat, Omnitech, Repro India, RDB Industries, Texmaco, Vikas WSP and Zen Technologies.

RCOM, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel could gain on getting spectrum from the Government. The Centre has made allotment of start up spectrum to RCOM for providing GSM services under the Unified Access Services Licenses (UASL). The company will, in due course, offer nationwide GSM services.

Ranbaxy's Board will meet on January 17, to consider demerger of New Drug Discovery Research Unit of the company into a separate entity.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services' Board has approved an investment of Rs100mn in the share capital of an Asset Management Company and investment of Rs10mn in the share capital of a Trustee Company.

Sun TV Network, through its subsidiary South Asia FM Ltd., had entered into a strategic alliance with Red FM to further its radio broadcasting business in North, West and East India. SAFL has now entered into an agreement with South Asia Multimedia Technologies Ltd. for a 6.98% stake in SAFL. Sun TV will continue to hold its stake of 64.12%.

Euro Ceramics has dropped plans for a preferential placement. Kirloskar Pneumatic's Board will meet on January 19, to consider a new project of RoadRailer Manufacturing and Services from it's Nasik property

Indian Bank and Jaiprakash Associates have declared strong results for the third quarter.

US stocks ended sharply lower on Friday amid renewed concerns about the economy and the impact of the credit crisis. Stocks fell for a third straight week, the longest losing streak since August, after forecasts from AT&T, American Express and Tiffany stoked speculation that the six-year economic expansion is ending.

AT&T dropped the most since 2003 after saying customer demand weakened. American Express had the steepest loss since September 2001 after adopting a cautious view for the year. Tiffany tumbled the most in five and a half years on slower holiday sales. Goldman Sachs said the US may already be in a recession.

The S&P 500 Index fell 0.8% last week to end at 1,401.02, bringing its year-to-date loss to 4.6% for the worst start since 1982. The index fell to an almost 10-month low on January 8. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 1.5% to 12,606.30. The Nasdaq declined 2.6% to 2,439.94.

Market breadth was negative.

In the wake of more bad news on the housing sector meltdown and the credit crunch, Wall Street expects the Federal Reserve to cut benchmark interest rates by at least half a percentage point at the end of its two-day meeting scheduled for January 30.

There is also speculation that the Fed will jump in and cut rates ahead of the scheduled meeting.

American Express said it expects lower profit through 2008 because of slower spending and missed credit card payments. Its shares slumped 10% on Friday. Capital One Financial warned that 2007 profit will miss previous estimates because of more loan delinquencies and addition to Q4 cash reserve.

Merrill Lynch may have to writedown $15bn in bad mortgage bets when it posts results next week, according to the New York Times. Analysts currently expect the financial major to take a $12bn writedown. The company is also apparently seeking to raise $4bn in capital. Merrill Lynch shares rose 5%.

Next week brings earnings from Merrill Lynch and four other big banks, including Citigroup, and results are expected to be pretty dismal amid the continued fallout from the credit and mortgage market crises.

Bank of America said it was buying Countrywide Financial for $4bn in stock, rescuing the biggest US mortgage lender. Countrywide shares slumped 15% after rising more than 50% on January 10 on rumors about the deal.

The US Government said the November trade gap swelled to its highest level in 14 months, due to record oil imports.

Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.78% from 3.88% late on Thursday as investors sought safety in government debt. In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the yen and inched higher versus the euro.

US light crude oil for February delivery fell $1.02 to settle at $93.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. COMEX gold for February delivery jumped $4.10 to settle at $897.70 an ounce after briefly topping an all-time high above $900 an ounce in the morning.

Across the Atlantic, European stocks too declined, but the sell-off was less severe. the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index slipped 0.5% to 343.69. The UK's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 6,202 while the French CAC-40 shed 0.5% to 5,371.41, while the German DAX 30 rose 0.1% to 7,717.95.

In the emerging markets, the Bovespa in Brazil slumped 2.5% to 61,942 while the IPC index in Mexico slid 1.2% to 28,723. The RTS index in Russia was up 0.3% at 2313 while the ISE National-30 index in Turkey was down 0.8% at 65,130.

Asian markets were down marginally this week. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped into the red after a higher opening while the Nikkei in Tokyo was shut for a public holiday. The Hang Seng was down 216 points at 26,650 while the Kospi in Seoul fell 18 points to 1764.

The Straits Times in Singapore was down 40 points at 3246 while the Shanghai Composite in China dropped 12 points to 5472. But, the Taiex in Taiwan advanced 117 points to 8146 following opposition party Kuomintang's decisive electoral win at the weekend.

Earnings, global cues to drive sentiment

It was a brave fight back by the bulls towards the end of the sessions. Amid wild gyrations unabated buying in the banking, Realty and select Mid-Cap stocks lifted the markets from their days low. However, the small-cap stocks in BSE, continued to be under pressure and lost further ground. Finally, 30-share Sensex closed at 20,827 adding 245 points and Nifty ended at 6,200 up 43 points.

Among the 30-scrips of Sensex ICICI Bank (up 6.13%), DLF (4.71%), Reliance (3.34%), HDFC Bank (2.47%), NTPC (2.33%) were top five gainers. However, ACC (down 4.32%), M&M (3.54%), Satyam Computer Services (2.24%), HDFC (2.18%) and Ambuja Cement (2.01%) were the top losers.

Orchid Chemicals edged higher 0.4% to Rs291 after the company announced that its formulation facilities, comprising the Cephalosporin plant and Penicillin plant have been approved by the Medicines Control Council (MCC), South Africa. These facilities manufacture a range of Cephalosporin and Penicillin injections. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs294 and a low of Rs281 and recorded volumes of over 4,00,000 shares on NSE.

Pantaloon Retail rose over 3% to Rs822 after the company announced its plans to invest Rs3bn in a joint venture with National Textile Corp. to develop and modernize textile mills. The board of Directors of the company approved the joint- venture plan to develop two mills owned by state-run National Textiles in the city. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs826 and a low of Rs780 and recorded volumes of over 1,00,000 shares on NSE.

Mukta Arts down 0.3% to Rs190. The company announced that it would consider selling securities to large investors on Jan. 18. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs203 and a low of Rs185 and recorded volumes of 42,000 over shares on NSE.

Educomp surged by over 3.5% to Rs4532 after its subsidiary signed MoU with IIT Chennai to develop Science enrichment programme. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs4575 and a low of Rs4375 and recorded volumes of over 1,00,000 shares on NSE.

Aries Agro a micronutrient and other nutritional products manufacturing company for plants and animals, today listed on the BSE and NSE at Rs150 and Rs160 respectively, as against its offer price of Rs130 per share. The scrip closed at Rs251.60 on the BSE and at Rs249.80 on the NSE. The company entered capital market with an IPO of 45,00,000 equity shares of Rs10 each for cash at a premium to be decided through the 100% book building process. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs261 and a low of Rs150 and recorded volumes of over 2,00,00,000 shares on BSE.

Precision Pipes an Indian maker of automotive and appliance components, rose as much as 17% on its trading debut on BSE toughing a high of Rs175. The shares were sold at an issue price of Rs150. The scrip finally ended at Rs138 at a discount of 7.5%. The company raised Rs750mn selling 5mn shares last month. The funds raised are being used to expand two of the company's five plants and to set up two plants to start exports. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs175 and a low of Rs132 and recorded volumes of over 62,00,000 shares on NSE.

TTML advanced 3% to Rs57 after the company announced that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given its "in-principal" approval to the company for starting GSM mobile services under the dual technology norms. The DoT has also cleared the plan of the unlisted Tata Teleservices to kick off GSM services across the country. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs58 and a low of Rs55 and recorded volumes of over 2,00,00,000 shares on NSE.

Idea Cellular gained 1.5% to Rs139 after the company said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued Letters of Intent to the Company for providing Unified Access Services (UAS) in nine Service Areas viz. Kolkatta, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Orissa, North East, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai). The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs141 and a low of Rs137 and recorded volumes of over 84,00,000 shares on NSE.

What the FIIs are doing

FIIs were net buyers of Rs1.7bn (provisional) in the cash segment on Friday while the local institutions were net buyers of just Rs19.2mn. In the F&O segment, foreign funds were net sellers of Rs4.63bn.

On Thursday, FIIs were net sellers of Rs6.31bn in the cash segment. Mutual Funds were net buyers of Rs464mn on the same day.