Tis the season to be jolly...

Indeed, Xmas has come early to Indian markets, where there was a broad based recovery from recent lows of 4750 odd....a neat 300-350pt rally. You know which stocks made me money during this recent spurt? Boring staid names like ONGC, NTPC, Cipla, Coal India....yes. Giving annualised returns between 44% (COAL) to 492% (ONGC)!! Moral of the story: We do not have to re invent the wheel. I found comfort in these counters fundamentally knowing fully well that while I may not catch the bottom, I know I have picked quality stocks which will stand by me in the long run....so that is what they did.

I believe we are in the last phase of the bear market which tends to be very painful. But this is a mutated phase in the sense that it wont last that usual 4 months...may take 2-3 quarters...and this will wear people out. Everyone would have quit equities for sure by then.

Globally, after the concerted central bank efforts and recently announced austerity measures, bond yields came off, and European equity markets rallied smartly. As of now, US treasury seems to be better off, with lower credit risk, of course, with governments going bankrupt, the credit risk aspect still hangs, however remote. So your Kd has an increasing component of that.

The flip side is S&P warning of a Eurozone downgrade, questions on sustainability of US unemployment data.

Rates are being cut across the world...be it China or Australia. When would RBI blink is the question. Historically markets have rallied whenever there has been a rate cut. So have our markets rallied in anticipation? Or the rise is more due to global cues and the December effect? All said and done, if the rupee continues to weaken, somewhere our market returns plus rupee effect should look terribly attractive to a FII.

Gold story seems to be over for the time being. Back home M&M planning to double XUV500's capacity and Hindalco planning to double is capacity may very well be the first signs of capex cycle picking up.

What do we do till then? I would still allocate a larger part to debt to lock in those fantastic yields domestically. I may be a tad wary of FMPs, but some corporate bond issues look juicy (rates are upfront unlike FMP, despite the tax disadvantage), and for liquidity hungry investors, UST and Liquid still pack a punch. Equities would largely be family jewels like Unilever, ITC, Exide, Infosys, HDFC Bank, RIL and the names I mentioned above. Play a larger allocation towards defensives and lock in a few growth stories. Rebalancing can be done on greater clarity.

More to go

Interesting point where we stand in today's market. Domestic triggers seem positive with a healthy saving rate, positive cues from the government about oil deregulation and disinvestment, strong balance sheets of good quality companies. We seem ready for the next phase of growth. Of course, caution is needed considering that the global economy is still struggling to find its feet with a major part of Europe to report GDP de-growth.

Oil demand has now fundamentally shifted to newer participants like Asia and China/India will lead demand once the economy properly recovers. Oil can be range bound between $60-$70 till such time. Exploration activity has shown signs of picking up but early days yet.

Valuations have undergone a dramatic shift across sectors, particularly for mid caps. Analysts are at a loss to justify fresh buys and mostly are going with the flow for the moment. Since markets have not stabilised and we are still in the transition phase, it becomes difficult to assign relative valuation measures to stocks. It becomes additionally difficult as global companies can not be strictly compared with domestic peers due to different growth and operational parameters.