But that did not happen, thanks primarily to Nifty reaching its all-time high on Tuesday and on Friday, the Sensex getting back on its horse on Friday and galloping to a 120.34 gain, or a 0.85 per cent rise to 14,338.45. The CNX Nifty also gained by 43.25 points to climb to 4,248.15—a one per cent increase.

The end-of-day result was a little startling as the indices had started the day very weak and only towards the latter part of the day did the activity pick up. That also meant the Sensex has risen for the second consecutive weak, climbing a minuscule 0.2 per cent this week.

While yesterday’s rise is attributed to the latest falling inflation rates, there was also the contributory reason of the derivative contracts that are set to expire on Thursday next week and investors were hectically trying to short-cover. The buying was not restricted to any particular sector. In fact all the sectors, including the out-of-favour-due-to-strengthening-rupee IT segment, benefited, especially India’s No. 2 IT company Infosys rising Rs 50 to Rs 1,986, a 2.6 per cent hike, while No. 1 IT company TCS rose by 0.5 per cent to Rs 1,230. The largest gainer was Satyam with a 3.5 per cent jump, while Wipro managed two per cent.

Expectations, after the latest inflation figures, that the rupee will decline, after reaching 9-year highs week after week, may have fuelled greater interest in IT stocks who get paid in dollars and their interest lies in a weak rupee as then they get more for their dollars. Also, there is talk that the Reserve Bank of India may go back to its old policy of buying dollars, something that it has not been doing in recent weeks on fear that buying the US currency will release too much Indian currency into the market that will fuel inflation.

The performance of the Indian markets was especially noteworthy as they refused to take cues from the international bourses, many of which fell by huge margins. While the Hang Seng lost over 250 points, the Nikkei lost over 200 points

A company that gained in a major way was Suzlon. But that was expected after it announced a successful buyout of German wind energy company RePower for $1.8 billion. The stock of the company rose almost 21.8 per cent from May 18 price of Rs 1,132 to Friday’s closing of Rs 1,378 on the BSE. However, it still did not manage to be the highest gainer on the BSE as it was beaten to the honour by Torrent Pharma that managed to rise by 29.3 per cent, from Rs 195 to Rs 253 during the week.

The same could not be said about Bajaj Auto though. The two-wheeler maker has been losing ground ever since the announcement of a three-way demerger of the company, although it did avoid becoming part of the Top 5 losers list on the BSE or NSE.

Tata Steel too suffered after the rulebook prohibited any further purchase of the company’s stock by FIIs after having reached the 22 per cent cap that is allowed for overseas investors to hold.

Among the banking companies, India’s No. 1 public sector bank State Bank of India gained in a major way. It climbed by 1.1 per cent to Rs 1,298, while the country’s No. 1 private banking entity ICICI Bank rose to Rs 913, a gain of just 0.5 per cent. But the best performer in the banking sector was ING Vysya Bank that climbed 12 per cent during the week—from Rs 237 on May 18 to Rs 266 on Friday.

Among the top losers on the BSE was Dena Bank which shed some 6.6 per cent to fall to Rs 44.

Another noteworthy deal that happened was the buyout of a 5.6 per cent stake in Housing Development and Finance Corp. by the Carlyle Group for a consideration of Rs 2,640 crore. That fact may have driven it to become one of the best performers on Friday as it gained 3.64 per cent to reach Rs 1,819.

All the sector indices, barring Bankex, were in the green on Friday.

The broader indices were all in the green on Friday.

Global Mkts were a mix.

Weekly Run

Source: Equity Master