The equity markets witnessed a sharp correction in the week ended March 18, 2005. The downtrend was mostly contributed by profit booking and mild tremors in Maharashtra on Monday, followed by selling pressure on Tuesday and Wednesday as FII inflow slowed down, and a rise in crude oil prices on Thursday. However, the Sensex and the Nifty recovered on Friday to end the week at 6700.34 and 2109.15 respectively. Overall, the BSE Sensex dipped 2.24 per cent while the Nifty skidded 2.08 per cent during the week. The slide was seen across most of the sectors during week. The broad based S&P CNX 500 fell by 2.26 per cent while the CNX Mid Cap 200 declined 1.87 per cent to sign off the week.
Among the sector specific indices, the BSE FMCG Index lost the most -- 3.38 per cent. The FMCG major Hindustan Lever continued its downward trend as it shed close to 6.9 per cent. The BSE Healthcare Index lost 2.29 per cent. Dr Reddy's lost 3.38 per cent while Cipla lost 1.4 per cent. The BSE Bankex too lost 1.30 per cent. HDFC Bank lost 7.1 per cent. ICICI Bank was among the few gainers as it soared 5.86 per cent.
The BSE PSU Index could not continue its three-week long rally as it succumbed to profit booking and slipped 2.61 per cent. The BSE IT and BSE Metal Indices were also worse off by 0.63 and 0.61 per cent respectively.
FIIs remained net buyers to the extent of Rs 2842.8 crore. After remaining aggressive buyers since February 2005 they sold shares worth Rs 46.10 crore on Tuesday and Rs 198.70 crore on Wednesday. Mutual funds injected Rs 179.56 crore in the Indian equity markets.
The IPO of Gateway Distriparks was oversubscribed six times on first day of its opening on Wednesday. Two new listings during the week comprised of India's largest domestic carrier - Jet Airways and the television show producer and film distributor - UTV Software Communications.
Outlook
The post-Budget celebration seems to have settled down gradually and the equity markets are likely to trade cautiously next week. Issues like global crude oil prices, foreign fund flows and financial year-end considerations are likely to dominate the sentiment of the markets. The US Federal Reserve meeting next week will also attract the attention of investors. The markets sentiment may remain bullish although chances of some more correction cannot be written off for the following week.
Ask Value Research 
New episodes every Friday 
New Process Alert 
Seems like you've uploaded a wrong QR code. Please upload the QR code downloaded from MF Central platform.
