Mumbai: After rallying to new peak on Monday on crude oil drop and fund inflows, profit-booking by operators in a mid-week ahead of key macro economic data on late Friday kept the Sensex and Nifty under check, still ending up by 0.13 percent and 0.23 percent respectively, extending gains for the fifth straight week.
The market commenced the week on a strong footing as overseas funds increased bets on growth optimism and a lower oil price which gave a boost to sentiments.
Later, the tussle was seen throughout the week between bulls and bears that saw the former gaining dominance over the latter, as both the key indices survived to end in green.
Hopes of further implementation of reforms by the new government kept the market from falling further.
Supreme Court Reserving order on Coal Block allocation case led to uncertainty for the market players.
Weakness in emerging markets on expectations of earlier key interest rates hike by the US Federal reserve, which might force foreign funds to shift their funds from emerging markets, also weighed on the market sentiment.
A lower crude price will help India, which imports about 80 per cent of oil needs, to contain CAD and fiscal deficit.
The end-session saw some buying by operators in blue-chip stocks and also retail investors in second-line counters, helping the Sensex to land in positive terrain at close.
The Sensex opened higher at 27,145.12 and surged to an intra-day record high of 27,354.99 and fell back below 27K-mark at 26,904.50, before recovering some ground to settle the week at 27,061.04, showing a small gain of 34.34 points or 0.13 percent.
In straight five-week, it has zoomed 1,731.90 points or 6.84 percent.
The NSE 50-share cnx Nifty moved in a range of 8,180.20 -- intra-trade historic high -- and a low of 8,057.30 before finishing at 8,105.50, showing a gain of 18.65 points or 0.23 percent.
Oil & Gas shares, which were at the forefront at initial stages after brent crude for October fell below USD 100 a barrel besides hopes of further reforms, fell back sharply on expectations of cut in petrol and diesel rates due for revision on September 15.
After lingering worries over early Fed rate hikes, the US President Barack Obama promised to defeat militants in oil producers Syria and Iraq, which also put pressure on market.
Tyre shares were in the limelight on hopes that recent sharp fall in rubber prices could boost the profitabilityof these companies. Apollo Tyre, Ceat Tyres, Dunlop India, Falcon Tyre, Goodyear India, JK Tyres, MRF and TVS Shrichakra notched handsome gains.
Heavy sell-off was seen in Sun Pharma, ONGC and Coal India after mid-week. Sun Pharma was the top loser from the sensex pack during the week with a fall of 6.10 percent on reports of a surprise inspection by US Drug regulator at its Halol plant in Gujarat by US drug regulator.
ONGC, Coal India and NHPC dipped on some news that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved stake sales in state-run companies ONGC, Coal India and NHPC at a discount to market price to get nearly Rs 45,000 crore this financial year as a part of government's divestment programme outlined in the Union Budget 2014-15.
Meanwhile, the factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) dropped to 4-month low of 0.5 per cent in July from 2.6 percent in July 2013, leading to diminishing hopes of early recovery.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) based on retail inflation eased marginally to 7.8 per cent in August from 7.96 per cent in July and 9.52 percent in August 2013.
All eyes are now on US Fed's policy-setting meeting on September 16-17 that could give more cues on rate trajectory.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) continued their buying spree, investing Rs 2,458.52 crore during the week as per the SEBI's record including provisional figure of Sept. 12.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said,"The Indian equity markets observed both the trends in the current trading week. Starting positively, it observed correction in mid-week.
"All eyes were on the economic data release which was scheduled on Friday for Indian Economy. The markets would take major effect of this economic release and the reactions of this would be observed on the first trading day of the coming week".
As many as 18 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended higher while others finished lower. Major gainers from the sensex pack were Cipla (9.91 percent), SBI (4.38 percent), SSLT (3.36 percent), Bharti Airtel (3.15 percent), HUL (3.15 percent), Maruti Suzuki (3.01 percent), Gail India (2.42 percent), ITC (1.58 percent), Tata Power (1.30 percent) and ICICI Bank (1.07 percent).
On the losers counter, Coal India dipped 3.60 pct, NTPC 3.40 percent, Tata Motors 2.00 percent, Infosys 1.60 percent, Larsen 1.90 percent, M&M 1.50 percent and BHEL 1.40 percent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Auto rose by 2.02 percent, FMCG 1.82 percent and Bankex 1,69 percent while Oil&Gas fell by 0.83 percent, IT 0.64 percent and Realty 0.44 percent. Small-cap and Mid-cap indices rose further by 5.08 percent and 3.25 percent, respectively, on sustained demand from retail investors.
The total turnover at BSE and NSE fell to Rs 17,622.54 crs and Rs 84,565.31 crs respectively from the last weekend's level of Rs 18,482.89 crore and Rs 86,245.43 crore.
