At last Indian markets came out of the shadow of its Asian peers and witnessed a pull back rally on Friday. On a weekly basis, however,it closed with a loss in line with other major Asian markets. Asian stocks fell, completing a second weekly decline, on concern that credit-market losses will widen and the dollar will weaken further against the yen. The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended up 2.63% or 403.17 points higher to close at 15,760.52 points. On weekly basis, it ended 215 points lower and moved in the range of 1,450 points during the week. The S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on the other hand was up 2.64% or 122.20 points to a weekly close at 4,745.60 points. Nine weeks have past since the Sensex peaked at 21,260 level on January 10 and since then the index has ended in the negative for seven weeks.
Dealers said, Asian markets continued to remain weak on the fear of US greenback weakening further against Japanese Yen. Except Singapore?s Straits Times all the major Indices in the region ended in red.
?Our markets are up despite losses in most Asian markets, which is heartening, as value-based buying has emerged at these levels. Also, the damage that was done to our market in recent times was more driven by sentiments rather than fundmentals. The subprime crisis, which has actually affected the US and the western markets, have corrected lesser than the Indian markets. I feel that our markets have almost bottomed out as the sentiment cannot rule the market for a longer period of time and the fourth quarter results will be the next trigger for the Indian markets. Till then Sensex is expected to be range bound between 15,500 and 17,000 but with a volatile bias,? said Raj Bhandari, director, Networth Stock Broking Ltd.
Dealers said, the statement by the finance minster P Chidambaram on the floor of the house that the ?current volatility in the domestic markets is reflection of worldwide developments?, helped the sentiments the most. Also, regarding his statement that his government would take all the necessary action to contain the inflation, propped up the sentiment. The FM also said that steps taken by Sebi to moderate foreign inflows were adequate, and dispelled fears that no more steps were in the offing with respect to participatory notes (PNs).
The follow up buying at lower levels also resulted in some respectable market breadth on Friday as compared to earlier sessions in the week. Though it was negative but with 1,214 stocks (44.14%) advancing while 1,458 stocks (53.37%) ending in red. The trading volume was also low compared to previous session as 89.94 crore shares were traded together on BSE and NSE against previous 92.79 crore shares while the combined turnover clocked was Rs 19,503 crore (Rs 19,737 crore).
