Mumbai: Market continued its rally for seventh straight week, conquering new milestones as benchmark Sensex gained 919.19 points to end new record highs at 35,511.58, while the broader Nifty closed at all-time historic high at 10,894.70.
Barring some profit-booking Tuesday session, bulls stayed confident through-out the week, though buying interest was not seen in the broader market, gains were mainly built-up by buying in stocks of banking, IT and Teck counters supported by positive economic datas and stock specific reports.
Investors’ optimism swelled following last Friday’s release of key macro-datas of Industrial production (IIP) numbers which marked 17 months-high in November, while spike in retail inflation (CPI) were duly sidelined.
Data of widening trade-deficit along with crude volatility and concern over fiscal-slippage played spoilsport, it was remarkably cushioned by government decision to lower the additional borrowing requirement of the current fiscal as well as media reports of approval of 100 per cent FDI in banks.
The market perked up on government decision to cut GST rate in number of items in its council meet, it was further augmented by earnings results in some of key bluechips along with positive global cues and dip in crude prices.
The Sensex started the week higher at 34,687.21 and hovered between new milestone record high of 35,542.17 and low of 34,687.21 before settling the week fresh record highs at 35,511.58, showing a gain 919.19, or 2.66 per cent. (The Sensex garnered 2,120.25 points or 6.46 per cent in during past six week sessions).
The Nifty also resumed the week up at 10,718.50 and marked milestone of 10,906.85 and low of 10,666.75 before ending the week at fresh record closing at 10,894.70, showing a gain of 213.45 points, or 2.00 per cent.
Buying was led by Banks, IT, Teck, Capital Goods and FMCG.
While, profit-booking was seen in Realty, Metal,
Oil & Gas, Power, Auto, PSUs., Consumer Durables, IPOs and HealthCare counters. Also the secondline midcap and smallcap company shares witnessed substantial selling.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 4,613.56 crore during the week, as per Sebi’s record including the provisional figure of January 19, 2018.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index dropped 2.05 per cent. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 2.68 per cent. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
Among sectoral and industry indices, bankex climbed by 4.73 per cent followed by IT 4.65 per cent, teck 3.11 per cent, capital goods 0.76 per cent and FMCG 0.44 per cent.
However, realty fell by 5.11 per cent, metal 3.67 per cent, oil & gas 2.93 per cent, power 1.91 per cent, auto 1.78 per cent, consumer durables 0.84 per cent, IPO 0.70 per cent and healthcare 0.67 per cent.
Among the 31-share Sensex pack, 17 stocks rose and remaining 14 stocks fell during the week.
Major Index gainers include, ICICI Bank rose by 11.32 per cent.
It was followed by HDFC 8.56 per cent, TCS 6.56 per cent, Axis Bank 6.21 per cent, Infosys 6.01 per cent, HDFC Bank 4.34 per cent, Kotak Bank 4.16 per cent, L&T 3.39 per cent and Wipro 3.04 per cent.
However, Coal India was the top Sensex loser last week. The stock fell 7.65 per cent.
It was followed by Tata Motors 3.94 per cent, Tata
Motors DVR 3.40 per cent, ONGC 3.32 per cent, Tata Steel 2.52 per cent,Hero Motoco 2.40 per cent, Bharti Airtel 2.29 per cent and Sun Pharma 2.10 per cent.
The total turnover during the week on BSE rose to Rs 30,737.02 crore as against last weekend’s level of Rs 27,137.55 crore and NSE moved up to 1,87,256.67 crore compared to Rs 1,84,611.77 crore previously.
Gold continues good run
Gold prices maintained its upward journey for yet another week, regaining the Rs 30,000-mark at the bullion market during the week, supported by wedding seasonal offtake by jewellers and retailers shrugging off weak global cues.
Traders said continued buying by local jewellers, driven by ongoing wedding season, mainly kept gold prices higher but a weak trend overseas limited the gains.
Silver too made further headway on the back of increased offtake by coin makers and industrial units.
In worldwide trade, gold futures settled higher
Friday, cutting their loss for the week, as the risk of a US government shutdown helped the precious metal rebound from the biggest one-day decline in more than a month, but the precious metal was still on track for its first weekly drop in six weeks.
Gold, which is priced in dollars, often trades inversely with the dollar, as moves in the US unit can influence the attractiveness of the precious metal to holders of other currencies.
February gold rose USD 5.90, or 0.4 per cent, to settle at USD 1,333.10 an ounce. Gold Thursday dropped USD 12, or 0.9 per cent, to settle at USD 1,327.20 an ounce, the biggest single-session dollar and percentage fall since Dec 7.
For the week, gold fell about 0.1 per cent following gains in each of the last five weeks.
March silver rose 0.5 per cent to USD 17.036 an ounce, ending about 0.6 per cent lower for the week.
In the New York Comex trade, gold for February delivery dropped to settle at USD 1,333.10 an ounce compared to last weekend’s close of USD 1,334.90, while March silver contract fell to finish at USD 17.036 an ounce from USD 17.141 earlier.
On the domestic front, standard gold (99.5 purity) resumed higher at Rs 29,990 per 10 grams from last Friday’s closing level of Rs 29,830 and rose further to Rs 30,095 before concluding at Rs 30,025, revealing a rise of Rs 195, or 0.65 per cent.
Pure gold (99.9 purity) also commenced positive at Rs 30,140 per 10 grams compared to preceding weekend level of Rs 29,980 and gained further to Rs 30,245 before ending at Rs 30,175, showing a gain of Rs 195, or 0.65 per cent.
Silver ready (.999 fineness) opened higher at Rs 39,295 per kilogram from last Friday’s closing level of Rs 38,850, it also moved between Rs 39,325 and Rs 38,760 before finishing at Rs 38,885, registering a gain of Rs 35 per kilo, or 0.09 per cent
Rupee wobbles
The Indian rupee skidded further against the beleagured dollar as forex market sentiment took a hard hit on the back of surging global crude prices and growing trade deficit concerns.
Stretching its losses for the second-straight week, the home currency depreciated by 21 paise to end at 63.84.
Overall trading mood turned into dismay after the country’s trade deficit widened to a three-year high on higher oil and gold imports.
The rising inflation and some speculation that the government may miss its deficit target after international crude oil prices hit USD 70 a barrel will give less space to RBI to cut rates in the near term, adding to worries.
Furthermore, the retail inflation accelerated to 5.2 per cent in December last year, though wholesale prices eased to 3.58 per cent in December 2017.
Indeed it was a highly volatile week for currency market as rupee climbed to a fresh 3-year high of 63.33 before retreating sharply.
Battling the twin pressure — rising crude prices and worsening trade deficit — the Indian currency tumbled to a fresh two-week low of 64.15.
However, abundant capital inflows and the government decision to slash its additional borrowing requirement for the current fiscal literally brought some much-needed relief for the battered forex market.
A breathtaking rally in domestic equities too weighed on the forex trading front.
The week started with a strong gap-up at 63.49 against weekend close of 63.63 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market due to bouts of dollar selling and strengthened to hit a high of 63.33.
But, it soon turned volatile and succumbed to heavy selling pressure, breaching the key 64-mark to touch a low of 64.15 before regaining some lost ground towards the fag-end trade.
The local unit finally settled at 63.84, showing a loss of 21 paise, or 0.33 per cent.
The domestic unit lost a staggering 47 paise in two-week slide.
The RBI, meanwhile fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 63.7183 and for the euro at 78.1441.
Meanwhile, the foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 2.7 billion to scale a new life-time high of USD 413.825 billion in the week to January 12, the RBI said.
Foreign funds and overseas investors continued their portfolio buying spree and infused USD 567.89 million during the week.
In the international commodity front, global crude prices took a knock, plunging about 1 per cent Friday, posting their first weekly loss in five weeks even as a sharp rise in US production outweighed ongoing declines in crude inventories.
The Venezuelan crisis added some fuel to the fears from within OPEC that their production cuts are biting faster than expected, which could make the inventory drawdowns overshoot at some point.
Brent crude futures settled at USD 68.61 a barrel after hitting their highest since December 2014 at USD 70.37.
On the global front, the American unit failed to gain any upward momentum during the week undoubtedly been weighed down by fears of a government shutdown despite firming interest rate expectations.
This week, many major currencies climbed to fresh multi-month and multi-year highs against the US dollar.
Elsewhere, the Euro ended marginally lower against the US dollar, below a three-year high touched Wednesday.
The common currency booked a fifth straight week of gains in advance of next Thursday’s ECB meeting.
The British Pound extended its gains against the greenback, leaving it closer to levels notched before the 2016 Brexit referendum driven by weakening sentiment on the dollar as much as any growing optimism over Britain.
In cross-currency trade, the rupee sell-off remained unabated against the British Pound and Euro for the second-straight week.
The Indian unit crumbled by a staggering 1.77 paise against the pound sterling to finish at 88.54 per pound from 86.77 and tumbled against the euro to end at 78.27 from 77.19 previously.
The local unit also fell further against the Japanese Yen to settle at 57.68 per 100 yens from last weekend close of 57.27.
In the forward market, premium for dollar drifted further due to persistent receiving from exporters.
The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable for June declined to 123-125 paise from 129-131 paise and the far-forward contract maturing in December 2018 also moved down to 261-263 paise compared to 266.50-268.50 paise last Friday. (PTI)
