The markets had a reasonably topsy-turvy ride through the week before ending with marginal gains. The Sensex ended at 18,376, higher by 110 points or 0.6% and the Nifty ended at 5516, up 40 points. There was outperformance on the broader market front, though. The midcap index ended at 6896, higher by 165 points or 2.4% and smallcap index ended at 8238, up 128 points or 1.5%.
The markets had begun the week on a tentative note post the gains registered towards the end of the previous week. The benchmark indices surged midway through the week as a lower GDP growth in March eased fears of a hawkish policy stance by the Reserve Bank at its policy meet scheduled next month. But a widening probe into the 2G imbroglio and a disappointing Reliance Industries AGM arrested possibilities of follow-up buying.
The GDP growth slowed down to 7.8% in March, lower than the anticipated 8.3%. The manufacturing sector grew 5.5% in January-March from a year earlier, while farm output rose by an annual 7.5%, the data showed.
Among other macro developments, food inflation eased marginally to 8.06% for the week ended May 21, from 8.55% last week. Headline inflation for April at 8.66% continued to remain above the central bank's comfort level which would put pressure on the Reserve Bank of India to raise rates.
A decline in cement output and lower finished steel production slowed down the growth of the six core infrastructure industries to 5.2% in April. The six core industries -- crude oil, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel -- had expanded by 7.5% in the year-ago period.
Moreover, the country’s trade deficit in April was at $9 billion, while its oil imports rose 7.7% to $10.2 billion. The exports in April rose by an annual 34% to $23.8 billion and imports for the month was up 14% on the year to $32.8 billion, government data showed. The HSBC Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), based on a survey of around 500 companies, fell from 58.0 in April to 57.5 in May to touch the lowest in four months due to a slowdown in new order inflows.
More From This Section
On the stock-specific front, RCom raced ahead by 9.8% at Rs 93 to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE. Hindustan Unilever jumped by 5.2% at Rs 318 and L&T gained 4.4% at Rs 1711. Bajaj Auto, DLF and Tata Power were the other significant gainers during the week.
The banking space also saw buying interest after being drubbed in the recent past. SBI strengthened by 3.5% at Rs 2312 top the gainers list among banking scrips. HDFC Bank gained 2.2% at Rs 2349 and Axis Bank added 2% at Rs 1243.
In the midcap index, KGN Industries soared by 17.1% at Rs 87, Kwality Dry galloped 15.7% at Rs 113 and Brittania jumped by 13.4% at Rs 444. And the smallcap index saw the likes of Cambridge racing ahead by 29.5% at Rs 40, Arss Infra gaining 21.3% at Rs 449 and Lloyds Steel adding 20% at Rs 19.
On the other hand, the auto space had a rough ride. Tata Motors skid by 5.8% at Rs 1025 to end at eight month lows post its latest sales numbers. The auto major registered a marginal 10% rise in total sales in May compared to the same month last year. M&M shed 4.9% at Rs 667 as the higher raw material costs are set to negate the 6.3% rise in quarterly net profit. The auto-ancillaries also had a bad time, with Cummins shedding 3.3% at Rs 679, Bharat Forge losing 1.5% at Rs 311 and Apollo Tyres losing 0.9% at Rs 69.