Sensex rallies further for 6 weeks

The main market driver of the recent strong rally since start of the current calender year, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) went on berserk and bought shares worth Rs 3,893.62 crores during the week including the provisional figure of February 10. Dismissing a petition to investigate Home Minister P Chidambaram`s alleged role in a 2008 telecom scandal by a Special court last weekend also boosted the sentiment. Shares of realty, consumer durable, metal, banking and IT were in strong demand.

Mid-cap and Small-cap indices also shot up by 3.32 pct and 3.06 per cent, indicating sustained participation of retail investors. The BSE benchmark sensex resumed higher at 17,741.91 and hovered in a range of 17,890.11 and 17,579.59 before ending at 17,748.69, showing a net gain of 143.73 points or 0.82 per cent from its last weekend`s level. It has gained by 2,293.77 points of 14.84 per cent in the last six weeks, the biggest rally since second week of February 2010.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved up further by 55.75 points or 1.05 per cent to 5,381.60. Slowdown in economic growth to 6.9 per cent in 2011-12 against 8.4 per cent last financial year as per government estimates due to sharp slowdown in manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors affected the market sentiment. Country`s industrial production rose by a slower-than- expected 1.8 per cent in December 2011, sharply lower than 5.9 per cent growth in November 2011, which also had negative impact at the fag-end of the week.

Among the 30-share sensex pack, 21 scrips ended with gains while others finished in red. Major gainers from the sensex pack were Jindal Steel (8.53 pct), Bajaj Auto (7.83 pct), TCS (5.34 pct), Wipro (5.18 pct), Sterlite Ind (5.13 pct), Tata Motors (3.69 pct), SBI (3.30 pct), NTPC (2.01 pct), HDFC Bank (1.95 pct), Coal India (1.66 pct), Tata Steel (1.66 pct), Icici bank (1.46 pct), ITC (1.35 pct) and Cipla (1.20 pct). However, Bharti Airtel dropped by 9.96 pct, followed by HUL 3.23 pct, M&M 2.75 pct, Sun pharma 2,69 pct, BHEL 1.40 pct, Tata Power 1.34 pct and Gail India 1.32 pct.