Renewed buying by foreign funds mainly in refinery,auto and metal counters amid firm global markets helped the BSE benchmark Sensex to bounce by 215 points during the week under review. The BSE and NSE were closed on Friday,April 22,on account of "Good Friday". Prediction of normal monsoon by India Meteorological Department for this year also boosted investors' sentiment as a good rainfall could boost rural income,impacting positively on sales of automobiles,fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables. Refinery counters too were in keen demand ahead of the Q4 results from the top heavyweight RIL on late Thursday. Metal stocks also attracted good buying support following rise in metal prices on London Metal Exchange (LMEX) during the week. Weak dollar overseas,too,helped the rise in prices of commodities globally. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs),main market mover,picked up shares worth Rs 2,044.09 crore in the week,including provisional data of April 21. The BSE benchmark Sensex resumed higher at 19,389.74 and hovered in a range of 19,695.98 and 18,976.19 before settling the week at 19,602.23,showing a net gain of 215.41 points or 1.11 per cent. The NSE 50-share Nifty also shot up by 60.15 points,or 1.03 per cent to finish at 5,884.70 from its last close. Rise in Asian and European markets in the week following smart surge on Wall Street due to better-than-expected results by some corporates also aided the sentiment. Meanwhile,in a reversal of a three-week declining trend,food inflation shot up to 8.74 per cent for the week ended April 9 from 8.28 per cent in the previous week. On bourses,the country's largest state-run oil explorer,ONGC,was the top gainer from the Sensex pack with a rise of 5.99 per cent while the top heavyweight RIL gained 2.07 per cent,resulting in the BSE-Oil&Gas index spurting by 2.77 per cent. Tractor major,M&M was the second gainer with a rise of 5.49 per cent followed by Maruti Suzuki (3.68 pct) and Bajaj Auto (3.12 pct). The BSE-Auto index was the second top gainer from the sectoral indices with a surge of 2.36 per cent. Other major gainers in Sensex were Hindalco (4.69 pct),HUL (4.51 pct),Sterlite Ind (4.11 pct),HDFC (3.57 pct),Jindal Steel (2.99 pct),Wipro (2.93 pct),Jaipra Asso (2.55 pct),SBI (1.99 pct),HDFC Bank (1.81 pct),Tata Power (1.78 pct) and ICICI Bank (1.42 pct). Among the other sectoral indices,BSE-Metal shot up by 1.98 per cent,BSE-CD by 1.60 per cent and the Bankex by 1.21 per cent while the BSE-Capital Goods fell by 2.40 per cent,the BSE-Power by 1.68 per cent and the BSE-Realty by 1.20 per cent. The total turnover at BSE and NSE rose to Rs 23,630.21 and Rs 50,834.00 crore,respectively,as compared to the last week's level of Rs 9,743.05 crore and Rs 37,966.50 crore.
