Markets have another good week

It was a climactic end to the week. The Sensex began the week on a shaky note after gaining by a stupendous 450 points and scaling the 20k peak in the preceding week. The BSE-benchmark index pottered around the important psychological level in the earlier part of the week before receiving a shot in the arm on Thursday, thanks to the encouraging derivatives rollovers data and covering of intra-day short positions on what was the derivatives expiry day. And the short-covering just got more intense on the following day; the markets began the first day of October with stupendous returns of nearly 400 points and thereby heralded yet another good week for the indices, the five consecutive week of gains. The Sensex ended the week at 20,445 - gaining 400 points o 2% this week. The Nifty jumped 2% at 6,143.

Infact, the month of September signified the third largest ever gains for the markets on a monthly basis, with the Sensex adding a whopping 2000+ points during the month.

Meanwhile, the wholesale food inflation rose to 16.44% for the week ended September 18 compared to 15.46% per cent in the previous week as heavy rains and floods in some parts of the country resulted in a temporary disruption in the supply of essential food items.

Thursday's Allahabad High Court ruling that the disputed land in Ayodhya would be split between the Hindus and the Muslims, dousing immediate fears of a violent backlash, aided the rally.

Data on Friday suggested that exports rose for the tenth straight month in August 2010, growing an annual 22.5% to $16.64 billion.

The beginning of the week saw markets being subdued to negative as September expiry approached. The Sensex touched a low of 19,864 on Thursday. However, markets gained once again on Friday to touch its highest in as many as 32-months. The Sensex touched a high of 20,475.

BSE metal index soared 5.2% this week to 17,517. Capital goods, auto and banking sectors also saw good gains and ended 2-3% higher.

However, the Oil & gas and the FMCG index ended slightly lower at 10,603 and 3,744, respectively.

The mid and small-cap indices underperformed. While the mid-cap index added 1.2% at 8,214, the small-cap jumped 1.3% to 10,403.

SAIL load the gainer's list among metal stocks - jumping 8.6% to Rs 223. JSW Steel surged 7% to Rs 1,369. Hindalco rallied 7% to Rs 204.

Tata Steel, Jindal Saw, Jindal Steel and Welspun Corp gained 4-6% each.

Other than metal stocks, realty stocks shone in the market this week. DLF jumped 6% to Rs 388. Jaiprakash Associates added 2.3% to Rs 124.

PSU stocks were up. BHEL gained 5.5% to Rs 2,590. NTPC added 4.6% to Rs 219.

Tata Power advanced 4.6% to Rs 1,390. Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, SBI, Mahindra & Mahindra and Cipla were up 2-4% each. IT stocks - Wipro, TCS and Infosys gained 2-3% each.

Meanwhile, ONGC shed 2% at Rs 1,406. FMCG stocks were weak. Hindustan Unilever dropped 1.5% to Rs 310. ITC was unchanged at Rs 179.

Hero Honda was the auto loser among Sensex stocks and dropped 1% while ACC from the cements space slipped 1.3% this week.

Telecom sector showed weakness as Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel slipped 0.8% each to Rs 168 and Rs 365, respectively.