Markets at a glance

The Sensex touched another all-time high level of 10951 in Friday's intra-day trade. However, it closed the week with a modest gain of 94.88 points at 10765.16. S&P CNX Nifty gained 50.15 points to settle at 3234.05.

FII inflows slowed down during the week after putting in $3.3 billion (30 per cent of $10.7 billion pumped in the year 2005) since January 2006. The market breadth was negative, especially on Friday, with an advance-decline ratio of 0.44:1.

The market breadth was evenly poised last week. Of the 30 Sensex stocks, 15 ended up in a positive territory. Reliance Industries was the biggest gainer contributing 52.63 points to the index. ONGC (up 6.06 per cent to Rs 1220.7), SBI (up 4.5 per cent to Rs 961.35) and Tata Motors (up 4.7 per cent to Rs 938.05) were the other gainers.

On the downside, Infosys Technologies proved to be the biggest loser. The stock declined 1.28 per cent last week, thus shaving off 13.26 points from the overall index. ICICI Bank (down 1.25 per cent to Rs 605.25), Larsen & Toubro (down 1.8 per cent to Rs 2466.75) and ITC (down 1.13 per cent to Rs 175.25) were other losers.

Among the sectoral indices, eight out of 12 stocks ended up in a positive territory. The biggest gainer was the BSE Oil & Gas index with over 4.13 per cent gain. ONGC (up 6.06 per cent), Reliance Industries (up 5.9 per cent), Essar Oil (up 3.3 per cent) and GAIL India (up 2.6 per cent) helped the index leap.

The BSE Cap Goods index (down 1.22 per cent) was the biggest loser. The BSE Metal index (down 0.7 per cent), BSE Healthcare (down 0.59 per cent) and BSE FMCG (down 0.1 per cent) were the other losers.

Major US indices ended the week in a positive territiory. For the week ended, the Dow rose 1.84 per cent to close at 11,279.65 and the S&P 500 advanced 2 per cent to settle at 1,307.25.

Similarly, the Nasdaq gained 1.96 per cent and ended the week at 2306.48. The bullish sentiment was mainly due to positive result in a consumer price report that showed tame inflation.

What to expect this week

Markets are expected to be weak in line with the general trend in the month of March "� the end of the financial year.

However, money raised by the domestic mutual funds is expected to provide support. Reliance Mutual Fund, for instance, recently raised Rs 5,700 crore, the largest sum ever raised by any Indian mutual fund.

Stock to watch  

GHCL LTD
Last week's close (Rs)	153.03
Prev. week's close (Rs	142.15
Week's high (Rs)	158.38
Week's low (Rs)	142.90
Last week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr)	51.37
Prev. week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr)	24.12
Number of up/down move	2/2

The GHCL stock is witnessing heightened interest from institutional investors. It closed the week at Rs 152.7, gaining about 7 per cent over the last week and about 14 per cent in the past one month.

Recently, ABN Amro Bank and GMO Emerging Market Fund have bought six lakh shares at Rs 143 and 28.3 lakh shares at Rs 147.5, respectively.

LIC Mutual Fund, Principal PNB Mutual Fund and Sundaram Mutual Fund are other major investors. Thus, all of the above together constitute about 4.8 per cent of the company's total capital.

The company is engaged in manufacturing industrial chemicals and textiles. It also has presence in IT services and edible salt. GHCL exports to Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Jordan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Australia.

Stock of the week  

ZEE TELEFILMS
Last week's close (Rs)	232.47
Prev. week's close (Rs)	185.20
Week's high (Rs)	239.75
Week's low (Rs)	182.28
Last week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr)	233.88
Prev. week's ave. daily turnover (Rs cr)	44.07
Number of up/down move	3/1

Stock of Zee Telefilms had a spectacular run on the bourses in the last week. It has gained about 25.5 per cent over the last week to close at Rs 232.2.

Huge volumes of 74.66 lakh shares were traded in Friday's trading session. Reports of the company's plans to raise its advertisement rates took the scrip at a 52 week high of Rs. 239.70.

According to report Zee will raise advertisement rates between 20-40% from the FY07. The hike will be applicable to its flagship Hindi entertainment channel, Zee TV, as well as its English language entertainment channels and some regional language channels. The scrip has registered gains of 32.5 per cent in the past month.