Wkly Review: Sensex recovers sharp losses, ends week on a +ve note

In a roller-coaster ride during the week under review, some positive developments at the fag-end of the week helped the benchmark Sensex to rebound from early sharp losses, ending with a gain of over 41 points.Steps taken by US policymakers and other top central banks globally to pump billions of dollars to revive the scary financial system and positive statements by the local government, assisted the Sensex to recover from a nine-week low of 12,558.14 points to close the week above the 14K-level.

Marketmen said morale-boosting signals from New Delhi after a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also boosted investor sentiment.

The PM's caution came during the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs meeting after Finance Minister P Chidambaram briefed about the financial crisis in US while stating the Indian economy was not affected by the developments.

Tracking global trends which rallied after regulators in the UK and US halted short-selling in financial stocks on late Thursday, boosted the badly battered investors' confidence which had touched rock bottom after the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers and distress sale of Merrill Lynch.

In the week to September 20, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer recovered its early losses sharply to end the week at 14,042.32 points, a mere rise of 41.51 points or 0.30 per cent over the previous weekend close.

Similarly, the 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also recouped by 16.80 points or 0.40 per cent to close the week at 4,245.25 points from the last weekend close.

RIL, ONGC, HDFC Bank, HDFC, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ACC, Tata Motors, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Powers were the major gainers from the Sensex pack, while Ranbaxy, DLF, Jaiprakash Associates, Grasim, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Reliance Com, REL Infra, Satyam Computer, Sterlite, Tata Steel and TCS suffered a sharp to moderate setback.

Reflecting a rally in some of the refinery and banking counters, the BSE-Oil&Gas index rose by 351.98 points or 3.86 per cent and the Bankex by 80.66 points or 1.15 per cent.

Although a battered realty segment attracted good buying support on Friday, it was the biggest loser from the sectoral indices. BSE-Realty index tumbled by 591.08 points or 12.59 per cent followed by the BSE-Metal by 847.83 points or 7.79 per cent and the BSE-CD by 264.21 points or 7.39 per cent.

Depicting a heavy sell-off in small-cap and mid-cap counters, BSE-Smallcap index plunged by 495.55 points or 7.38 per cent and the BSE-Midcap by 308.36 points or 5.57 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index declined by 58.60 points or 0.80 per cent to end the week at 7,285.77 points from 7,344.37 points.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were also quoted further lower at 1,695.81 and 611.44 at the weekend compared to last weekend's close of 1,1717.28 and 626.44 respectively.

On the NSE, the S&P CNX Defty eased by 21.50 points or 0.67 per cent to close the week at 3,189.80 from 3,211.30 last weekend and the CNX Nifty Junior also ended the week down by 251.25 points or 3.67 per cent to 6,591.55 points from previous weekend's close of 6,842.80 points.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Metal Index nosedived by 904.35 points or 7.67 per cent to 10,881.42, the BSE Realty Index by 285.54 points or 5.73 per cent to 4,693.72, the BSE CD Index by 211.00 points or 5.57 per cent to 3,575.28 and the BSE Oil&Gas Index by 536.24 points or 5.56 per cent to 9,116.44.