Market up 3%, registers fourth straight weekly rise

The Indian markets stood positive for the fourth consecutive week. The Sensex rose 2.96% and the Nifty up 3.09%

Headlines for the week

RBI cuts CRR by 50 bps, leaves policy rates unchanged

Supreme Court rules in favour of Vodafone in tax case

Food inflation at -1.03% vs -0.42%

Cabinet gives final approval to Cairn-Vedanta deal

Wipro Q3 consolidated net profit up by 10%

RIL Q3 net profit falls by 14%

L&T Q3 net profit up by 18%



Indian indices

The Indian markets closed higher for the fourth straight week. The biggest surprise this week was a cut in CRR by the RBI in its Third Quarter Monetary Policy. The RBI’s move boosted investor confidence in the market and also better-than-expected earnings back home, appreciation in rupee added to the positive tone. Heavy inflow of foreign money provided major support this week. Stabilisation in the Europe and gradual improvement in the US economic data further helped markets.

The Sensex swung 600 points between a weekly high of 17259 and a low of 16659 and closed the week higher by 495 points or 2.96% at 17234. The Nifty swung 196 points between a weekly high of 5217 and a low of 5021 and closed the week higher by 156 points or 3.09% at 5205.

Sectoral and stock screening

All the sectoral indices closed the week on a positive note except BSE Realty down by 0.28%. Top gainers of the week — BSE CG advanced by 5.64%, BSE TECk rose by 5.18% and BSE Auto surged by 4.29%.

Coming to 'A' group stocks, top three gainers of the week – JSW Energy jumped by 22.15%, Essar Oil advanced by 20.21% and Sintex Industries rose by 16.50%. Top three losers of the week – Alstom Projects India slipped by 6.74%, Hero MotoCorp declined by 6.61% and United Breweries down by 6%.

Global indices

All the global indices closed the week higher. The Sensex was the best performer of the week surging by 2.96%, followed by DAX up by 2.12%, Hang Seng advanced by 1.95% and CAC40 up by 1.26%. Shanghai Composite remained shut for the whole week.

FII/MF activity

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were the net buyers of the Indian stocks this week to the tune of Rs3066 crore. The domestic investors sold Indian shares worth a net of Rs268 crore during the week till January 25, 2012.

Outlook

The quarterly earnings will continue to pour in and may provide future course of direction for the markets. Auto and cement stocks will be focus as the companies from these two sectors will start releasing monthly sales data for January 2012 from Wednesday (February 01, 2012). The share buyback programme of Reliance Industries (RIL) will begin on February 01, 2012 and close on January 19, 2013. Changes in the external environment, mainly in the Europe and US may have some bearing on the markets.