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Sensex tumbles 201 points, but posts weekly rise; FIIs back to buying ways

Despite falling nearly 1% on Friday, Indian equities posted their first weekly gain in nearly a month as foreign institutional investors

Despite falling nearly 1% on Friday, Indian equities posted their first weekly gain in nearly a month as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) returned to their buying spree this week. Overseas funds bought $256.33 million of Indian shares in the cash segment this week, after selling about $56 million worth of shares last week ? the first weekly sale since August 30, 2013.

Declining for the second consecutive session, the Sensex settled at 21,063.62, down 201.56 points or 0.95%. The Nifty lost 57.25 points or 0.91% lower to end at 6,261.65. For the week, however, the 30-share benchmark rose 305.13 points (1.5%), while the 50-share Nifty surged 90 points (1.5%).

Broader markets witnessed selling pressure for the second week in succession, after having rallied for the previous three weeks. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices lost 1.5% each. Gains in Indian equities were also limited by a higher degree of selling by domestic institutional investors (DIIs), who liquidated about R1,660 crore of shares this week. DIIs sold about R88 crore last week, and the tally stood at R1,180 crore in the week ended January 3, data showed.

?Markets (have been) consolidating before important results such as ITC, HDFC Bank, RIL and Wipro. Our markets are buying time and waiting for a trigger to react on either side based on these quarterly numbers,? said HDFC Securities in its research note.

Shares of banks, automobile, capital goods, metal, and power companies ended in green, ending their two-week decline. BSE Capital Goods index surged 2.9%, the most in the week. CNX IT index ended up 1% on a week-on-week basis, despite a 2.5% fall on Friday. BSE Oil & Gas index gained 2.6%, while Bank Nifty and BSE Auto ended higher by about 1%.

Market breadth was strong, with 21 out of 30 Sensex stocks ending in the green this week. BHEL surged 5.4%. HDFC (5%), Infosys (5%), Cipla (4.8%) and Larsen & Toubro (4.7%) completed the list of top five gainers.

On other hand, defensives witnessed some amount of profit booking. The BSE Healthcare, BSE Consumer Durables and BSE FMCG index ended down 1-2% this week. Prominent losers this week include Bharti Airtel (-5.9%), Coal India (-5.5%), TCS (-2.9%), and Sun Pharma (-2.6%).

The mood in global markets was flat-to-positive, with major Asian, European and US equities in the green. Barring Nikkei and Shanghai Composite, major Asian indices like Hang Seng, Stock Exchange of Thai Index, Taiwan Taiex, and South Korean Kospi ended up 1-3%. Major European and American indices were trading up 1-2% at the time of going to print.

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First published on: 18-01-2014 at 03:32 IST
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