Despite weak cues from the US markets, Indian markets ended on a positive note on Friday, on the back of sustained buying across the board and some short covering in the derivatives segment at lower levels. For the week ended on Friday, Sensex gained 650.36 points or 3.72%, while the S&P CNX Nifty gained 182.55 points or 3.5%.
The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), after opening around 100 points lower in the early trades, managed to close at 18,115.25 points, a gain of 348.62 points or 1.96%, while the broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) surged 100 points or 1.94% to close at 5,302.90 points.
Earlier in the day, Indian and the other Asian markets opened on a weak note mirroring US markets which fell on Thursday after Ben Bernanke, chairman, US Federal Reserve, acknowledged that the outlook for the world?s largest economy (US) had worsened recently and downside growth risks had increased.
Though, positive statements from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Indian economy will sustain its 9% growth rate and data pertaining to the wholesale price index inflation for the week ending February 2 falling to 4.07% as against 4.11% a week ago, lifted investors? sentiments, dealers said.
Dealers also attributed a change in sentiments toward buying by foreign funds on Friday. According to provisional figures from the stock exchanges (SEs), foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers at Rs 261.20 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers at Rs 138.66 crore.
Trading volumes that had dipped since the meltdown in January, started to pick up on Friday. The trading volumes at both the SEs stood at 97.30 crore shares as against 89.43 crore shares being traded on Thursday. Across the board, buying kept the overall markets breadth at the BSE positive with 1,983 stocks rising as against 763 stocks that declined and around 47 stocks remained unchanged.
