Yet another lacklustre week is behind us; the fourth consecutive one at that! The Sensex did rally to a fresh 30-month high midway through the week, but succumbed to tiredness and settled with gains of 276 points or 1.5% at 18,144 and the Nifty added 72 points to end at 5439. And considering that the BSE benchmark index had shed 262 points in the last week of July, we have wrapped up the week pretty much around the levels seen in the past month. The midcap index gained 126 points or 1.7% at 7534 and the smallcap index added 235 points or 2.5% at 9584.
The moribund state of affairs is surprising, given that the week saw an easing in the food inflation and the quarterly numbers have been largely good. The food price index rose by an annual 9.53% in the week ended July 24 compared to 9.67% in the the previous week as the prices of fruits and vegetables fell by 3%. The fuel price index rose by an annual 14.26% in the week to July 24 as against a 14.29% reading in the previous week, although the government had hiked fuel prices in end-June.
There were pockets of outperformance though. The IT index gained 3% to emerge as the leading weekly sectoral gainer on the BSE. The US-based IT major Cognizant declared a stellar set of numbers that topped market estimates for the sixth straight quarter, with second-quarter revenues standing at $1.11 billion, up 42% from the previous year and 15% on a sequential basis. The company also given a positive guidance for CY10, with aggregate revenues expected to rise by 36% to $4.46 billion. With most of Cognizant's employees and development centres based in India, Cognizant's performance had a domino effect on the listed IT players back home. Wipro zoomed by 5.4% at Rs 433, TCS jumped 2.9% at Rs 865 and Infosys added 2.7% at Rs 2864. And the midcap IT space not only joined the party, but actually outdid some of their more revered peers. HCL Tech gained 5% at Rs 412, Mphasis asdded 4.8% at Rs 619 and Rolta added 4.1% at Rs 176.
Banking was another space that hogged the limelight. ICICI Bank spurted 5.2% to end the week at Rs 951, bolstered by a good set of quarterly numbers. The stock had actually underperformed the Sensex by about 7% in the past 3 months. And SBI jumped 4.6% at Rs 2620. Bank of India strengthened by 5.8% at Rs 434 and Kotak Mahindra Bank gained 5.7% at Rs 813. HDFC Bank (1.5% at Rs 2095) and Axis Bank (2.5% at Rs 1311), however, ended on the lower side.
Media stocks rallied towards the end of the week on hopes that the telecom regulatory authority of India’s (TRAI) recommendation for complete digitisation will push up the subscription revenues. Prime Focus soared by 33.9% at Rs 507, Hathway Cable and Datacom jumped by 20.8% at Rs 211, Den Network strengthened by 14% at Rs 236 and Dish TV added 12% at Rs 44. TRAI has recommended phasing out analogue television (TV) services in the four metros – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata by March 31 next year and in the rest of the country by December 31, 2013.
And shipping stocks raced ahead after shipping companies reported robust financial numbers for the quarter ended June 2010. Essar Shipping soared by 34% at Rs 115, Shreyas Shipping zoomed by 21% at Rs 39, Mercator Lines jumped by 12% at Rs 52, Chowgule Steam gained 10% at Rs 45 and Garware Offshore added 10% at Rs 139. Varun Shipping, ping and Shreyas Shipping are trading over 10% higher, while Mercator Lines, Garware Offshore, Shipping Corporation of India, Great Eastern Shipping, Chowgule Steamship, Bharati Shipyard and ABG Shipyard are up between 4-10% each on the BSE.
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Among individual scrips, Tata Motors raced ahead by 5.7% at Rs 894 to emerge as the leading weekly gainer on the BSE. Wipro gained 5.4% at Rs 433 and ICICI Bank added 5.2% at Rs 951. Bharti Airtel, SBI, HDFC and TCS were the other significant gainers.
On the losers side, RCom weakened by 3.1% at Rs 172, M&M shed 1.8% at Rs 649 and Cipla lost 1.5% at Rs 321. HDFC Bank. Tata Steel and RIL were the other notable losers.