Despite heavy sell-off on Friday, the BSE benchmark Sensex settled the week in the green, rising over 45 points on continued buying mainly in consumer durables, capital goods, auto and banking stocks, and stretching gains for the second straight week.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index commenced the week lower at 16,678.34 on weak global cues triggered by steep fall on Wall Street on September 2 on disappointing jobs data in August. Besides, US authorities decided to take action against a dozen big banks for their role in triggering the 2008 global financial crisis, and in the process raised investor concerns.

However, it recovered the next day on news of that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) will set a floor price for the euro/ swiss franc exchange rate to control the rising franc. This development boosted European stocks and had a positive impact on the Indian markets.

The Sensex remained in positive terrain till Thursday and crossed the 17,000-mark to hit a four-week high of 17,211.80 on Friday morning on across-the-spectrum buying on fall in food inflation amid sustained portfolio investments.

However, selling on the last day of the week following weak US economic data and US Federal Reserve Chairman’s failure to give any indication of a new stimulus package to boost the world’s largest economy, weighed on global markets.

The US President, Mr Barack Obama’s move to provide a $447-billion jobs package failed to infuse confidence in global investors as they resorted to selling amid recession concerns.

As a result, the Sensex fell back sharply to settle the week at 16,866.97, still showing a rise of 45.51 points, or 0.27 per cent. Last week, it had zoomed by 972.63 points or 6.14 per cent.

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