Weekly Wrap: Sensex tanks 1069 points on global weakness

Amid fresh worries about the subprime market in United States, markets across the globe were stormed by the bears last week (November 5 - 9, 2007). Unable to ward off the marauding bears, the Indian bourses ended all the sessions, including the auspicious Muhurat Session on Friday, on a highly negative note.

With FIIs staying away and domestic mutual funds not stepping in any significantly and the reporting season having ended already, global factors dictated price movements last week. The market exhibited immense volatility as participants chose to book profits at every rise. Stock cutting across sectors felt the heat. The one-hour Muhurat session on Friday proved a valuable extra time for the bears and they knocked off over 150 points from the Sensex by launching a merciless attack on blue chips in the final few minutes.

The Sensex, which lost around 385 points on Monday, went down by 190 points on the next session and extended its loss further on the next two sessions as it drifted down by 111 points and 231 points respectively.

The Muhurat Session saw the Sensex plummet by close to 300 points during the final minutes. The barometer finally ended the special session with a 151 point loss.

While the Sensex ended the week with a massive loss of 1068.63 points or 5.35 per cent at 18,907.60, the Nifty, which settled at 5663.25, recorded a loss of 269.15 points or 4.54 per cent.
The mood was so bearish last week that only a few stocks, Hindalco (7.8 per cent), NTPC (2.8 per cent), Cipla (2.2 per cent), BHEL (2.2 per cent), Reliance Industries (0.8 per cent), ACC (0.6 per cent) and Ambuja Cements (0.2 per cent), among the Sensex components ended on the positive side.

Banking sector heavyweights ICICI Bank (14.1 per cent), HDFC Bank (12.5 per cent) and State Bank of India (4 per cent) and IT majors Infosys Technologies (down 10.7 per cent), Satyam Computer Services (down 7.6 per cent), Wipro (down 6.5 per cent) and Tata Consultancy Services (3.4 per cent) closed with sharp losses.

Telecom stocks Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel eased by 9.7 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively. Shares of oil & gas exploration major ONGC (down 9.3 per cent) were hammered and engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (down 7. per cent) went down sharply as well.

Tata Steel, Grasim Industries and HDFC lost 6.7 per cent, 6.5 per cent and 4.9 per cent respectively. Among automobile majors, Tata Motors closed with a loss of 7.8 per cent.
Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra lost 3 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively. Bajaj Auto ended lower by around 1.2 per cent. ITC (down 3.7 per cent), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (down 1.5 per cent), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 1.5 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (down 1.3 per cent) and Reliance Energy (down 0.8 per cent) also finished on a weak note.

Nalco, the biggest gainer among Nifty stocks, shot up by 22.7 per cent to Rs 372.55. GAIL India (17.6 per cent) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (11.4 per cent) also had a nice ride up the charts. BPCL closed with a modest gain of 3.4 per cent. HCL Technologies ended marginally higher than its previous week's closing price.

Reliance Petroleum, a big gainer in recent weeks, ended with a huge loss of 17.2 per cent. Siemens lost a little over 9 per cent. SAIL ended 8.1 per cent down. Tata Power, VSNL, MTNL, Unitech, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Sterlite Industries, Zee Entertainment and Sun Pharmaceuticals lost 3 per cent - 7 per cent. Suzlon Energy (down 2.5 per cent), Punjab National Bank (down 2.4 per cent), ABB (down 1.7 per cent) and Hero Honda (down 1.6 per cent) also closed with notable losses.

Gujarat Minerals, Ramco Systems, i-Flex Solutions, Geometric Software, Canara Bank, Exide Industries, Mico, Polaris, Hindustan Zinc, LIC Housing Finance, Mastek, IndusInd Bank, Aventis Pharma, United Phosphorus, Kotak Bank, Sterlite Optical Technologies, Essel Propack, Jindal Stainless, Escorts, Hinduja TMT, IDBI and Punjab Tractors were among the prominent losers last week.

Ispat Industries flared up by 33.8 per cent. Neyveli Lignite Corporation (18.5 per cent), Fertilizers & Chemicals (15.1 per cent), Federal Bank (13.4 per cent), Raymond (12.1 per cent), Dena Bank (10.8 per cent) and Dredging Corporation (9.7 per cent) ended with hefty gains. Despite struggling on a couple of sessions, Reliance Natural Resources posted a sharp gain of 7.2 per cent.

National Fertilizers, GSFC, Indian Oil Corporation, Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals and Mirc Electronics also closed with smart gains.
All the sectoral indices ended in the red last week. The Bankex, the biggest loser of them all, slipped by as much as 9.15 per cent. The IT index closed with a loss of 8.23 per cent. BSE Teck ended lower by 6.9 per cent. The Metal index lost 4.69 per cent while the Auto, Capital Goods, FMCG and Realty indices eased by 2 per cent - 4 per cent.

The Healthcare index ended nearly 2 per cent down and the indices tracking the performance of consumer durables, oil, power and PSU stocks dropped down by 0.3 per cent - 1 per cent.
Even as several blue chip stocks went down sharply, a number of midcap and smallcap stocks were seen attracting strong buying enquiries. Outperforming the premier indices, the Smallcap barometer recorded a marginal gain of 0.15 per cent. The Midcap index ended with a small loss of 0.1 per cent.



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