The stock market ended almost flat the last week, with the Sensex and Nifty up 0.7 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively. The logjam in the Winter Session of Parliament over the Union Government’s move to allow FDI in retail contributed to this.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE FMCG was the highest gainer, up 2.6 per cent during the week. Losers included BSE PSU, BSE Bankex, BSE Power and BSE Tech, all of which were down around 0.2 per cent.

Airlines stocks had a good run on rumours (denied by the managements) of impending stake sales in the companies.

Jet Airways was up 27.9 per cent for the week. Also, low-cost carrier SpiceJet was up 11 per cent following the resignation of Kalanithi Maran and his wife Kavery Kalanidhi from Kal Airways, one of the promoter entities of the airline.

The stock of tea manufacturer McLeod Russel India was up 5.7 per cent for the week, after Nomura assigned a ‘buy’ rating on the stock.

Media major Zee Enterprises gained 5.8 per cent. This followed a court ruling that the Board of Control for Cricket in India will have to pay Rs 140 crore as damages for breach of a telecast agreement entered into in 2006 with the company.

Biofuel maker Praj Industries was up 5.2 per cent for the week, after the Union Government announced its intent to extend ethanol blending with petrol across the country.

The stock of Hindustan Copper was down 14.9 per cent for the week, following the 20 per cent dip in the stock’s price on Friday. This was due to the Union Government’s decision on Thursday to fix Rs 155 a share as the floor price for divestment of its stake through the offer-for-sale route. The floor price was more than 40 per cent below Hindustan Copper’s market price of Rs 266.

Tata Global Beverages lost 5.9 per cent on the bourses during the week. Morgan Stanley had downgraded the stock to ‘underweight’ citing poor earnings visibility, lack of pricing power, lower return ratios and high valuations.

As part of its divestment plan, the Union Government plans to sell 9.5 per cent of its stake in power company NTPC . The news saw the stock shed 4.2 per cent during the week.

Phama major Ranbaxy was down 4.9 per cent in the week after it reported a recall of atorvastatin, a generic version of Pfizer’s cholesterol drug Lipitor, in the US.

Honeywell Automation India Ltd was down 14.6 per cent during the week. The stock tanked, as promoter Honeywell Asia Pacific intends to reduce its shareholding in the company through the offer-for-sale route. This is to comply with the minimum public shareholding requirement of 25 per cent. The stock had earlier run up on expectations that the parent company may choose to delist the Indian arm.

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