However, Reserve Bank of India, in its monetary policy on April 7, left the shortterm lending rate or repo rate unchanged and also kept the cash reserve ratio and the statutory liquidity ratio static, which weighed on the markets as Sensex closed almost flat on Tuesday.
Later, it continued its upward trend on Moody’s report and hopes of delay in the US interest rate hike.
Showing confidence in the Indian economy, global ratings agency Moody’s raised country’s credit outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’ and said an upgrade in its sovereign rating is also possible in the next 1218 months, giving space for operators and investors to go long.
Another agency, Fitch, announced country’s sovereign credit rating at ‘BBB’ with a ‘stable’ outlook.
Market participants expected more capital inflows after weak US jobs data indicated that the Federal Reserve will not be in a hurry to raise interest rates.
Allround buying was seen, as all 12 sectoral indices closed strong with metal, realty, FMCG, consumer durables, Power, Oil&Gas, IT and Tech segments, leading the pack.
The BSE 30share barometer resumed higher and moved in a positive for the major part of the week in a range of 28,907.81 and 28,221.59 before concluding at 28,879.39, a sharp gain of 619.24 points or 2.19 percent.
In last two weeks, the gauge has surged by 1,420.74 points or 5.17 percent.
The 50issue NSE Nifty also jumped 194.10 points or 2.26 percent to settle the week at 8,780.35. In two weeks, it has zoomed by 438.95 points or 5.26 percent.
Frenzied buying by retail investors was seen in secondline stocks as their indices outperformed the Sensex. The BSE Smallcap and BSE Midcap indices closed higher by 6.28 percent and 3.19 percent, respectively.
Though the pharma shares were in the limelight till midweek, selling in last couple of session trimmed gains after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded some of the key pharma stocks.
Among Sensex gainers, Coal India topped the list by climbing 5.73 percent on reports that the government has lifted the cap on company’s eauction sales.
Caution prevailed on on the last day of the week ahead of the key economic IIP data for February, which was released after trading hours on Friday, and beginning of the fourth quarter earning season next week.
For the future course of action, traders will be looking for the next week at macroeconomic data, including CPI and WPI to be released on April 13 and 14, respectively.
Investment by foreign funds, global trend and movement of the rupee against the dollar will also dictate the trend in nearterm, a broker said.
Foreign portfolio investors picked up shares worth Rs 1,608.18 crore during the week, including provisional data of April 10.
Overall, 23 out of 30 Sensexbased scrips finished with gains. The petrochem giant and among top heavyweights, RIL, was the top gainer with a rise of 8.28 percent.
Other major gainers were Infosys (7.41 percent), Dr Reddy’s Lab (7.20 percent), Coal India (6.95 percent), M&M (6.80 percent), SSLT (6.10 percent), Tata Steel (5.82 percent), HUL (5.51 percent), NTPC (5.27 percent), SBI (4.46 percent), Hindalco (4.35 percent), TCS (4.27 percent), ITC (4.14 percent), Bajaj Auto (4.06 percent), GAIL India (3.82 percent), Sun Pharma (3.70 percent), Bharti Airtel (2.33 percent), Tata Power (1.74 percent), L&T (1.57 percent) and BHEL (1.32 percent).
However, HDFC declined by 3.27 percent, Hero MotoCorp (2.69 percent), Wipro (2.16 percent), ICICI Bank (1.44 percent) and Cipla (1.32 percent).
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Metal shot up by 5.68 percent, Realty (5.66 percent), FMCG (5.01 percent), CD (3.93 percent), Power (3.55 percent), Oil & Gas (3.44 percent), IT (3.25 percent), Teck (3.05 percent) and HC (2.70 percent).
The total turnover at BSE and NSE was at Rs 18,245.26 crore and Rs 94,742.09 crore from Rs Rs 8,236.17 crore and Rs 47,640.57 crore, respectively as against the last truncated week.
Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) will remain closed on April 14, 2015 on account of “Ambedkar Jayanti”.