Sensitive Index (Sensex) had its best time since the beginning of Calendar Year 2008 as it catapulted by 9.18% or 1376.46 points to 16,371.29 during the week ended March 28, 2008. The Nifty index moved up by 368.05 points or 8.05% to 4942.
Taking cues from the positive global sentiment, foreign institutional investors staged a strong comeback and picked up blue chip stocks in a frenzy during the first couple of sessions of the week. Short-covering ahead of expiry of March series derivatives contracts also contributed to the rally. The bulls remained so stubborn that the benchmark BSE Sensex shot up by 295 points and 928 points respectively on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday’s gain was the barometer’s second biggest single session gain in absolute terms. The Nifty vaulted by nearly 270 points on Tuesday.
Among the major factors that contributed to the rally on Tuesday was the upward revision made by JP Morgan for the acquisition of Bear Stearns Corporation. The former revised its price to $ 10 a share from the original bid price of $ 2 a share.
Weak global markets and investors’ reluctance to hold positions at higher levels rendered the market volatile in the next two sessions and the Sensex lost around 130 points and 70 points respectively on Wednesday and Thursday.
And then, ignoring a negative close on Wall Street and taking cues from positive Asian and European markets, the bulls dominated the proceedings on Friday and lifted the Sensex by 356 points. There were some uncertain moments till past noon, but then buying gathered momentum in afternoon trade and during the final hour of trade that day the bulls proved virtually unstoppable. So bulls got charged up and even a sharp rise in inflation failed to dampen their mood.
Except pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 2.5%) and automobile stock Tata Motors (down 0.7%) all other Sensex components ended the week on a positive note. Besides these two stocks, Sun Pharmaceuticals (down 0.6%) and SAIL (down 0.3%) were the ones from the Nifty to end on the losing side.
Infotech stocks like Wipro (20.6%), Infosys Technologies (13.7%), Tata Consultancy Services (7.4%) and Satyam Computer Services (4.7%) staged a strong comeback.
Notwithstanding a few weak spells, housing finance major HDFC recorded a strong gain of 18.1%. Jaiprakash Associates flared up by 17.8%. Metal majors Hindalco (13.2%) and Tata Steel (12.5%), capital goods heavyweights BHEL (13.2%) and Larsen & Toubro (10.9%), realty stock DLF (11.7%) and power major Reliance Energy (10.5%) moved up sharply.
Reliance Industries (8.7%) remained rangebound at times but rallied strongly in late afternoon trade on Friday. Banking sector heavyweights HDFC Bank (10.3%), ICICI Bank (9%) and State Bank of India (4.8%) also contributed significantly to the market’s gains last week. ITC gained over 10%. ACC (7.6%), Hindustan Unilever (7.5%), NTPC (6.8%), Bharti Airtel (6.2%), Reliance Communications (5.9%), ONGC (6%), Cipla (5.6%), Mahindra & Mahindra (5%) and Grasim Industries (4.2%) posted impressive gains. Maruti Suzuki and Ambuja Cements ended with modest gains.
Nifty stocks Tata Power (16.1%), Punjab National Bank (14.9%), Suzlon Energy (14.7%), Idea Cellular (13.7%), BPCL (13.1%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharma (10.1%), Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (9.5%), Unitech (9%) and Tata Communications (8.6%) finished with hefty gains.
Hero Honda, Reliance Petroleum, HCL Technologies, Sterlite Industries and Power Grid advanced by 6% – 8%. GAIL India firmed up by 5.9%. Nalco (3.5%) and Cairn India (2.5%) recorded modest gains. Siemens and Zee Entertainment also gained ground in the positive territory.
Edelweiss Capital, Mastek, Reliance Capital, Orchid Chemicals, Kotak Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Raymond, Gujarat Minerals, ICI India, IndusInd Bank, Adani Exports, Chambal Fertilizers, LIC Housing, IPCA Laboratories, FDC, Essel Propack, Pfizer, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Thermax, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, D-Link India, Bank of Baroda, Century Industries, Engineers India and TN Newsprint & Papers were some of the big gainers from BSE ‘A’ Group.
All the sectoral indices ended with hefty gains. The Consumer Durables index, which gained the most, moved up by 12.94%. The Realty barometer shot up by 12.66%. BSE IT rallied 11.53% while the Power and Capital Goods indices climbed up 10.65% and 10.38% respectively.
The Bankex, FMCG, Teck, Metal, Oil & Gas and PSU indices moved up by 7% – 9.5%. The Healthcare barometer surged 5.01% while the Auto index, which gained the least, advanced by 4.13%. With a number of mid and small cap stocks rebounding smartly, the Midcap and Smallcap indices shot up by 9.37% and 9.41% respectively.
Posted by krishna Raj 