US stocks maintained the winning momentum for the third straight week, as corporate earnings offset the Chinese central bank's attempts to control inflations. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained one per cent each while tech-heavy Nasdaq moved up by 0.9 per cent last week.

The domestic markets too saw a rally last week despite a sharp fall on Friday, as foreign institutional investors slowed down their selling. The BSE Sensex and the NSE's S&P CNX Nifty jumped 2.8 per cent each last week.

Among the ADRs, information technology counters hogged the limelight. The ADR of Infosys jumped 3.35 per cent to close at $69.37 against the previous week close of $67.12, while Wipro jumped 4.17 per cent at $13.23 ($12.7).

However, the biggest gainer was Mahindra Satyam (erstwhile Satyam Computer), whose ADR jumped 7.9 per cent to $14.36 ($14.22). The company last week announced that it would pay $125 million in an out-of-court settlement to end a set of class action suits filed in the US. This will remove all roadblocks for its merger with Tech Mahindra – which bought the then troubled company, and its effort to relist on the NYSE. Currently Mahindra Satyam is trading over-the-counter market.

The company had also decided to sue its founder Chairman, Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, for the losses suffered by the company due to the scam.

Patni Computer – in which iGate bought a majority stock – closed flat at $20.18 ($20.1).

The other counter that sizzled last week was MTNL. The ADR, after registering its 52-week low at $1.85, rose sharply to close the week at $2.07 ($1.96), a gain of 5.61 per cent in a week. MTNL added 37,586 new users in its Delhi and Mumbai circles and the subscriber base touched 5.15 million.

Banking majors ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank also moved up. While the latter surged 3.4 per cent at $153.31 ($148.18), the former inched up 0.5 per cent to $45.57 ($45.34).

Tata Motors ended flat at $26.4 despite posting impressive financial performance. The company has posted a standalone net profit of Rs 410.06 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, as compared with Rs 400.14 crore recorded in a year-ago period. Total income rose to Rs 11,524.96 crore (Rs 8,974.3 crore). The consolidated net profit stood at Rs 2,424.38 crore (Rs 650.26 crore) and sales at Rs 31,695.10 crore (Rs 25,978.88 crore).

Sterlite Industries closed 0.98 per cent higher at $14.36 ($14.22) even as metal prices wobbled at the London Mercantile Exchange.

Internet majors Rediff.com and Sify were the biggest losers. While the former crashed 11.8 per cent at $6.54 ($7.42), the latter tumbled 5.86 per cent at $2.73 ($2.9). Both these counters had surged quiet sharply in a short span but reversed direction last week.

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