The Indian stock market saw some bright spells last week, a truncated one due to a holiday on Friday for Independence Day, as slightly easing geopolitical worries and falling crude oil prices triggered a few rounds of hectic buying at several counters from across various sectors.
The market regulator SEBI's nod for the creation on real estate investment trusts that could result in more money flowing into the realty and infrastructure sectors, played a role as well in lifting sentiment on the bourses.
While the BSE benchmark Sensex ended the week with a gain of around 774 points or a little over 3% at 26,103.20, the Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange closed up 223.15 pooints or 2.94% at 7791.70. Both the indices settled at a three-week closing high.
Midcap and smallcap stocks, despite seeing some strong buying on Thursday, the final session for the week, ended mostly closed lower. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were ended the week virtually unchanged from previous week's closing levels.
The market ended with solid gains on Monday, tracking positive global markets amid slightly easing worries about the situation in Ukraine and Iraq. Some bargain hunting and short covering after previous week's losses too contributed to the market's upmove. A few stock specific stories like good results from SAIL, a likely subsidy payment to PSU oil marketing firms and an encouraging business outlook from Mahindra & Mahindra, too aided sentiment. The Sensex ended up 190 points that day, while the Nifty moved up by 57.40 points.
It was a pretty strong outing for stocks on Tuesday as some upbeat corporate earnings reports and lower crude oil prices on the back of a downward revision in crude oil demand forecast by the International Energy Agency contributed to the upmove.
The Indian Meteorological Department estimated rainfall to be 87% of average of last 50 years, revising downward its earlier June and April forecasts of 93% and 95%, respectively, but that did not deter investors from indulging in some hectic buying at the ring. The Sensex ended up 362, while the Nifty closed higher by 101 points that day.
On Wednesday, the market ended modestly higher after wwinging between gains and losses right through the session, reacting to a slew of corporate earnings reports. Data showing a slower pace of industrial growth in June and a rise in consumer price based inflation in July hurt sentiment to some extent. Weak economic data from China and concerns about the situtation in Ukraine weighed as well. The Sensex ended the session with a gain of 38 points, while the Nifty advanced by 12.50 points.
The market ended on a high note on Thursday, with investors lapping up stocks, betting on hopes the low interest regime in the U.S. will have an extended run on the back of some tepid retails sales data. Hopes of continued stimulus from the Chinese government to boost its economy triggered some buying in the metal space.
A drop in India's wholesale price inflation and some encouraging corporate earnings reports too aided sentiment to a notable extent. The Sensex, which rallied to 26,135, ended the session with a gainof about 185 points and the Nifty closed up 52.15 points.
src:sify.com