Sensex gains 1.05 percent, ends above 20,000 points (Weekly Market Review)

MUMBAI - A benchmark index of Indian equities market ended above the psychological resistance level of 20,000 points, with a gain of 1.05 percent in a low volume trading this week, ahead of holiday season.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) rose 1.05 percent or 208.81 points during the week.

The benchmark Sensex largely remained range-bound and flirted with 20,000 points level towards the end of the week.

The sensex settled 0.45 percent or 90.78 points up at 20,073.66 points Friday, the last trading session of the week.

At the National Stock Exchange, the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty also settled above 6,000 points. The Nifty closed 31.60 points, up at 6,011.60 points Friday.

Good buying support in consumer durables, FMCG, pharmaceutical and metal stocks led weekend rally at the market.

However, auto, PSUs and oil and gas stocks remained laggard.

Major gainers at the Sensex on the last trading session of the week, were Sterlite Inds, up 2.58 percent at Rs.184.80; Hindalco Inds, up 2.42 percent at Rs.239.35; ITC, up 1.80 percent at Rs.169.85; Tata Steel, up 1.78 percent at Rs.673.35 and Bharti Airtel, up 1.69 percent at Rs.348.50.

Only six of the 30 Sensex scrips closed in the red. Tata Motors, down 3.17 percent at Rs.1,306.10; BHEL, down 1.01 percent at Rs.2,284.75; ICICI Bank, down 1.01 percent at Rs.1,119.05 and ONGC, down 0.48 percent at Rs.1,294.60 were among the major losers at the Sensex.

At the broader market, the BSE midcap index rose 0.25 percent and the BSE smallcap index settled 0.32 percent higher.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE consumer durables index climbed 1.79 percent, FMCG index 1.33 percent and metal index 1.37 percent.

Other Asian markets ended the week in the red.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.70 percent to 2,835.16 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.30 percent at 22,833.80 points and the Japanese Nikkei settled 0.65 percent down at 10,279.20 points.