Mumbai, April 11 (Inditop) Indian equities markets climbed higher for the fifth consecutive week ending Thursday as a key index gained about 4.4 percent from its previous weekly close in what was a curtailed week of trading with markets open only three days.
Markets remained closed Tuesday and Friday, on account of Ram Navami and Good Friday respectively.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended Thursday at 10,803.86 points, with a gain of 455.03 points, or 4.4 percent, over the previous week’s close of 10,348.83 points.
Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) gained 4.1 percent from its last close to end at 3,342.05 points.
The Sensex hit an intra-week high of 10,929 points and low of 10,173, while the NSE Nifty touched an intra-week high of 3,401 points and low of 3,149.
“This was an encouraging week but one should now be careful at this level as markets are now at the higher side of the safe zone, which was 8,000-10,000 points,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at SMC Capitals.
“Buying at this level does have higher short-term risks, but there are quite a few scrips that can give you long-term returns,” he added.
Gains were recorded across the board as significant buying was seen in medium and small enterprises’ stocks. The BSE midcap index ended 7.45 percent higher than its previous weekly close, while the BSE smallcap index was up 9.62 percent.
Sensex rose 1.8 percent or 186.04 points Monday to close at 10,534.87 points as heavyweight Reliance Industries and financial stocks surged on growing expectations that the global financial crisis could be nearing its bottom. This was the Sensex’s fourth straight day of gains.
Wednesday saw markets defy bearish trends ruling global bourses, and markets closed the day about 2 percent higher than the last closing figure, after being in the red most of the day.
Sensex rose 207.47 points or 1.97 percent to close at 10,534.87 points, while the Nifty gained 2.65 percent from Monday’s close to end trade at 3,342.95 points.
The government came out with another set of dismal industrial production figures Thursday but markets were quick to discount the news as they ended the week in the green.
Government data showed that industrial production in February fell 1.2 percent over the same period last year.
The Sensex, which opened at 10,876.15 points, higher than its Wednesday close, rose 61.52 points or 0.57 percent to close at 10,803.86 points Thursday.
However, the Nifty lost 0.03 percent from Wednesday’s close to end trade at 3,342.05 points.
The top gainers on the Sensex included Tata Steel (up 16 percent), L&T (up 16 percent), Reliance Infrastructure (up 13.9 percent), Reliance Capital (up 13.6 percent) and Tata Motors (up 11.4 percent).
Among losers were ACC (down 2.6 percent), BHEL (down 2.4 percent), SBI (down 0.6 percent) and Grasim (down 0.5 percent).
Data with market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the week ending Thursday showed foreign funds were net buyers, lapping up scrips worth $335.3 million.
