Sensex ends volatile week with marginal gains

Weekly update

The markets exhibited high volatility for the second straight week. The benchmark indexes gyrated between zones during the week as quarterly earnings and fund flows to India's biggest IPO kept investors on thier toes. Eventually, the markets ended with marginal gains.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,332 and then dropped to a low of 19,822 only to bounce back strongly to a fresh weekly high of 20,352. The index eventually ended with a gain of 41 points at 20,166.

While among the major results, TCS beat market expectations Wipro failed to deliver in line with the expectations. Cement majors ACC and Ambuja Cement also reported lower earnings for the September quarter.

Meanwhile, India's larget IPO - Coal India - received and overwhelming response with over 15 times total subscribtion. FIIs alone had put in subscribtion of over Rs 1,00,000 crore to the mega issue.

Among the Sensex 30 stocks - TCS zoomed over 9% to Rs 1,040 riding on its 30% surge in Q2 net profit. Reliance and Cipla rallied nearly 4% each to Rs 1,081 and Rs 345, respectively. Hero Honda, Reliance Communications and Larsen & Toubro were the other major gainers.

On the other hand, Sterlite slumped nearly 6% to Rs 168. Metal stocks were seen under pressure on reports of China economy cooling off. Wipro tumbled over 5% to Rs 448 after the company reported 10% growth in Q2 net, which was lower than market expectations.

HDFC too shed nearly 5% to Rs 693. Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Steel, DLF and HDFC Bank were the other major losers this week.|

BSE mid and small-cap indices outperformed the broader markets this week. The Mid-cap index jumped 1.3% to 8,425. Pipavav Shipyard soared over 20% this week to end at Rs 92.70. Central Bank, indiabulls Financial Services, EID Parry and Biocon were some of the other gainers in the index.

Small-cap index was up 0.8% at 10,723. Tilaknagar Industries led the gainers list among small-cap stocks, soaring over 28%. Indo Rama Synergies, Kanani Industries, Gemini Communications, KRBL, ABG Shipyard, Om Met Infra and Mangalore Chemicals rallied 15-27% each.

Most of the sectoral indices ended in the positive. BSE healthcare index gained 2.8% at 6,481. Biocon was the star of the show and surged 11% to Rs 445. Aurobindo Pharma and Glenmark gained 5% each to Rs 1184 and Rs 318, respectively. Other gainers included Orchid Chemicals, Sun Phara, Cipla and Lupin. However, Opto Circuits and Apollo Hospitals dropped 3-5% in trades this week.

Oil & gas, capital goods, PSU and IT indices were some of the other spaces which gained.

Meanwhile, metal index dropped 2.6% to 17,023. Sesa Goa slumped 8% in trades to Rs 343. JSW Steel, Welspun Corporation, Tata Steel and NMDC were some of the other prominent losers.

The consumer durables space also ended with losses.