Merry Xmas at D-Street; Sensex gains over 3% in week

Christmas celebrations at Dalal Street! It was really a good week for the markets. Bulls are in a mood of rejoice as Christmas has taken the Nifty to a new high of 5,197.90 this week. The Finance Minister`s comments on GDP growth also added to the gains. Positive discussions about divestment programmes in Cabinet meeting, encouraging cues from global markets also added fuel to the upmove. Finally, both the BSE 30-share Sensex and Nifty added 3.8% each.
The BSE Sensex hit an intra-week high of 17,361 and low of 16,578 while NSE Nifty hit an intra-week high of 5798 and low of 4,943. It has gained more than 70% so far in 2009, one of the best performer among leading global bourses.
The 30 share index, Sensex zoomed 640.78 points, or 3.83%, to 17,360.61 in the week ended Dec. 24, 2009. On the other hand, the broad based NSE Nifty surged 190.7 points, or 3.82%, to 5,178.40 in the same period.
Mid-cap stocks gained 170.56 points, or 2.64%, to 6,641.14 in the week. While small-cap shares increased by 235 points, or 2.98%, to 8,120.71 during the week.
Major gainers over the week in the sectoral indices were Metal (6.82%), Oil & gas, Power, Bankex and PSU soared over 4% each, Realty and Consumer durables surged over 3%, IT, FMCG, Capital goods and Teck gained over 2% each and Auto rose 1.97%.
Healthcare, which dipped 0.14% was the only loser over the week.
Leaders in 30-share index were NTPC (11.04%), Hindalco (10.39%), Tata Steel (9.33%), Reliance Infrastructure (6.89%), and ICICI Bank (6.66%) over the week.
On the other hand Cipla (down 2.5%), Hindustan Unilever (down 1.2%), Bharti Airtel (down 1%), Ranbaxy Labs (down 0.9%) and ACC (down 0.6%). were the top losers in the Sensex over the week.
Speaking about Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) flock back to bet on the India growth story by pouring in a record over Rs 800 billion in domestic equities in 2009.
The FII investment of Rs 80,500 crore in 2009 is the highest ever inflow in the country in rupee terms in a single year and comes a year after they pulled out over Rs 50,000 crore. FII inflow so far this year has broken the previous high of Rs 71,486 crore parked by foreign fund houses in domestic equities in 2007.
Economy News
Food inflation decreased marginally to 18.65% for the week ended December 12 though essential items like potato and pulses continued to remain expensive. The food inflation declined by 1.30 percentage points during the second week from 19.95% in the previous week.
``Indian market is showing a strong sign of recovery from mid 2009 on the back of strong domestic demand, policy reforms and stimulus packages. The year initially saw huge job losses, defaults on loan etc., however, as we end the year, the economic scenario has stabilized very quickly. The year ends with more than a spark of hope, and we wish that the next year will be a stable and profitable one. However, we believe that markets would continue to be volatile and hence it is important to manage risk (as always!) in the coming year too,`` said Anil Rego, CEO and Founder of Right Horizons.