The market ahead

Last week I had an interesting discussion on the way ahead for the Indian stock market with someone who (to his credit) had predicted that the market was set to go into a bear market just before it went. Now, my friend thinks that the market is going to slide further during the next couple of months and his advise is to sell and move to cash using the increases in the market.
Though I admit that my friend has been on the spot predicting the slide, using his technical skills, I am more of a believer in fundamentals. I believe we should buy and hold the stocks that we know are undervalued. It is not difficult to find undervalued stocks when the markets are down. And according to me it is difficult to predict when the bear phase has ended. One could be left stranded with cash and then having to pick at higher values than currently available. I agree that the current market does not look positive and it is bound to fall further, but in the long term there is only one way to go.. UP!