The benchmark Sensex bounced back with vengeance, gaining 3.59 per cent during the week under review mainly buoyed by a slew of positive factors.
Infrastructure and interest rates related shares like realty, auto and banking were at the forefront on good buying on expectations of some favourable fiscal measures in the interim budget to be announced on Monday and key rates cut by the central bank to support the sagging economy.
Easing of the foreign direct investment (FDI) norms by the Centre, fall in the inflation below five per cent to year's low of 4.39 per cent and no hike in the freight rates in the February 13 interim Railway Budget also gave a much needed boost to the market sentiment.
At the week ended February 14, the BSE 30-share opened higher and improved further to a five-week high of 9,724.87 before settling at 9,634.74 on Friday, a steep rise of 333.88 points over the preceding weekend's close.
The broader 50-issue Nifty of National Stock Exchange also recovered sharply by 105.25 points, or 3.70 per cent, from last weekend's close to end the week at 2,948.35.
The market, however, ignored the projected slow growth rate in the GDP in 2008-09 due to global economic crisis, negative growth rate in the index of industrial production (IIP) in December and sustained sell-off by foreign funds.
