The BSE benchmark Sensex continued its rally for the sixth consecutive week by gaining another 144 points on strong buying in select counters driven by persistent capital inflows from foreign funds despite disappointing industrial production data for December.

The main market driver of the recent strong rally since start of the current calendar year, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) went on berserk and bought shares worth Rs 3,893.62 crore during the week including the provisional figure of February 10.

Dismissing a petition to investigate the Home Minister Mr P. Chidambaram’s alleged role in a 2008 telecom scandal by a special court last week-end also boosted the sentiment.

Shares of realty, consumer durables, metal, banking and IT were in strong demand. Mid-cap and small-cap indices also shot up 3.32 per cent and 3.06 per cent, indicating sustained participation of retail investors.

The BSE benchmark Sensex resumed higher at 17,741.91 and hovered in a range of 17,890.11 and 17,579.59 before ending at 17,748.69, showing a net gain of 143.73 points or 0.82 per cent from its last week-end level. It has gained 2,293.77 points or 14.84 per cent in the last six weeks, the biggest rally since the second week of February 2010.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved up further by 55.75 points or 1.05 per cent to 5,381.60.

Slowdown in economic growth to 6.9 per cent in 2011-12 against 8.4 per cent last financial year as per government estimates due to a sharp slowdown in manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors affected the market sentiment.

Industrial production rose by a slower-than-expected 1.8 per cent in December 2011, sharply lower than 5.9 per cent growth in November 2011, which also had negative impact at the fag-end of the week.

Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 21 scrips ended with gains while others finished in red.

Major gainers from the Sensex pack were Jindal Steel (8.53 per cent), Bajaj Auto (7.83 per cent), TCS (5.34 per cent), Wipro (5.18 per cent), Sterlite Ind (5.13 per cent), Tata Motors (3.69 per cent), SBI (3.30 per cent), NTPC (2.01 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.95 per cent), Coal India (1.66 per cent), Tata Steel (1.66 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.46 per cent), ITC (1.35 per cent) and Cipla (1.20 per cent).

However, Bharti Airtel dropped by 9.96 per cent, followed by HUL 3.23 per cent, M&M 2.75 per cent, Sun Pharma 2,69 per cent, BHEL 1.40 per cent, Tata Power 1.34 per cent and Gail (India) 1.32 per cent.

Among the major indices, the BSE-Realty shot up by 5.79 per cent followed by the BSE-Consumer Durables 5.77 per cent, the BSE-Metal 4.12 per cent, the BSE-Bankex 2.95 per cent, the BSE-PSU 2.50 per cent, the BSE-IT 2.33 per cent and the BSE-Auto 2.00 per cent.

The total turnover on the BSE and NSE rose to Rs 17,236.16 crore and Rs 76,968.91 crore, respectively from the previous week-end level of Rs 16,736.86 crore and Rs 74,511.88 crore.

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