The markets posted gains last week as the signals from the US on the mortgage crisis were reassuring. The Sensex gained 271.82 points, nearly 1.8 per cent to 15,590.42 points, while the Nifty rose 45.5 points or 1.01 per cent to 4518.60 points during the week.

Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers to the tune of Rs 2191.6 crore, while mutual funds shopped for Rs 353.8 crore.

What to expect this week

Markets are expected to remain directionless with bouts of volatility, rising crude oil prices and a lack of clarity on the political front in India. With speculations over US Fed rate cuts and the Indo-US nuke deal, the situation does not appear to be improving until the end of the week. However, mutual funds and domestic financial institutions are likely to continue buying shares.


Stock to watch

CENTURY ENKA
Last week's close (Rs) 139.85
Prev. week's close (Rs) 118.75
Week's high (Rs) 142.85
Week's low (Rs) 118.33
Last week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr) 1.58
Prev. week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr) 0.27
Number of up/down move 4/1

After being an underperformer in the past year, the beleagured synthetic textile company, Century Enka, has been gaining attention in recent times. The stock is up by 18 per cent in last week and 15 per cent over the last month.

The company’s market capitalisation of roughly Rs 270 crore is just about 27 per cent of its annual revenues of about Rs 1,000 crore mainly due to poor profitability at the net levels.

However, market players expect the company's profitability to improve as they believe that it will follow Reliance Industries, which has raised prices of different grades and varieties of polyester items by Re 1 to Rs 10 per kg due to rising global prices.