The market consolidated in the past week after see-sawing in the 1,680 to 1,700 range amid an absence of fresh catalysts since the beginning of this year. Macro indicators released so far have not been significantly off expectations.
Investors took profits from stocks that had pushed the market up late last year such as banks (with optimism confirmed by earnings announcements), retail, tourism and healthcare. They also shifted to laggards such as finance/leasing and petrochemicals as well as medium and small-cap shares that consolidated.
Following the announcement of bank earnings last week, investors started to look for connections to the real sector via loans and NPLs. Fourth-quarter earnings previews of non-bank blue chips -- and the rest of the market from next week to mid-February -- will become an influential factor in determining the short-term direction of particular sectors and individual stocks. For that reason, speculation will outweigh dividend plays as we expect the benchmark index to move sideways up in a higher range at 1,690 to 1,710 in the near term.
