Buying interest in index heavyweights, robust FII inflows and strong quarterly numbers delighted the equity investors in the week ended July 22, 2005. The 30-stock BSE Sensex zoomed past the psychologically important barrier of 7,400 to end at historic 7,423.25 points, up a handsome 2.09 per cent over the week. The Nifty too surged 2.40 per cent to sign off the week at 2,265.60 mark. Midcap stocks saw a lot of activity, as the CNX Midcap 200 added 6.20 per cent.
Equity markets had an auspicious start to the week on Monday. While the 30-stock BSE Sensex touched a new high of 7,359 in the intra-day trades before closing up 75 points at 7,347, the Nifty rose 21 points to 2,234. Monday's rally was led by strong gains in auto, technology, pharma and select FMCG and cement stocks. The tech counter was on a high following strong quarterly results declared by the Tata Consultancy Services last week. Good numbers declared by Bajaj Auto and Hero Honda triggered sharp rise in auto stocks' prices.
After a volatile trading day, the equity markets ended flat on Tuesday. While the Sensex closed at 7,346.63 mark, marginally down from its Monday's close of 7,347.10 points, the Nifty gained 3.30 points to end the day at 2,237.30. Steel and banking stocks were the major gainers of the day. Continued FII support and easing global crude oil prices have boosted the market sentiments. Among the Sensex constituents, cement major ACC led the pack of gainers with gains of over 4 per cent. Hero Honda, ITC and Tata Power were the top three losers of the day.
After scaling an all-time high level of 7,392 points earlier in the day, the BSE Sensex closed flat on Wednesday. The index fell 3.74 points to end the day at 7,342.89 mark. The Nifty closed 4.60 points up at 2,241.90. Even as the index heavyweights including Reliance, Satyam, Grasim Industries, BHEL and L&T maintained their gains, Infosys, FMCG major ITC and HDFC brought the indices down.
Equity markets slipped in red on Thursday, as traders took to profit booking at higher levels. The Sensex closed at 7,304 points, down 36 points, while the Nifty shed 11 points to end the day at 2,230 points. All the sectors came under selling pressure, though sectors like technology and auto figured among the biggest losers. Among the Sensex stocks, L&T, ITC and SBI led the pack of losers. On the other hand, HDFC, Bharti-Televentures and Satyam Computer figured among the top gainers. Select energy stocks also ended the day in green.
The equity markets reversed their three-day losing streak on Friday. The markets ended the last trading day of the week with a bang with the Sensex closing up 118.93 points at 7,423.25 mark. The Nifty too gained 35.10 points to end the day at 2,265.60. Buying interest in the index heavyweights, FMCG, technology, metal, select banking and auto stocks provided strength to the stock markets' rally.
Among the major Sensex gainers, BHEL surged a massive 11.36 per cent on hopes of revival of the disinvestment process. The stock also gained after it announced that it was working to increase its manufacturing capacity to 10,000 MW every year from 6,000 MW at present.
Satyam Computers also added 10.79 per cent after the company announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire a 100 per cent stake in Singapore-based Knowledge Dynamics for $5.4m.
Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT Index recovered from last week's hammer and gained 3.52 per cent. Metal stocks got their lustre back, as the BSE Metal Index surged 4.36 per cent. The BSE PSU and BSE Bankex too added 2.97 and 2.90 per cent, respectively. FMCG stocks lost despite good progress in the monsoon. The BSE FMCG index shed 2.03 per cent over the week.
The combined daily average turnover on both exchanges went down by 5.97 per cent to Rs 9,176.34 crore.
Foreign institutional investors continued their support to the Indian equity markets and invested Rs 1,578.80 crore. Mutual funds too invested Rs 142 crore.
Outlook
With no signs of weakness in the FII inflows, we may see another positive week for the stock markets. Domestic mutual funds turned net buyers during the week after a gap of nearly six weeks. This too augurs well for the equity markets, as they are sitting on a huge cash pile.
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