Weekly Wrap: Sensex, Nifty Clock Best Week In Over A Month Led By RIL
Momentum of trade was sluggish this week as equity benchmarks ended on a subdued note in four out of five sessions.
Indian equity benchmarks clocked their best weekly performance in over a month led by Reliance Industries Ltd. after its profit for the October-December quarter beat Bloomberg estimates.
The S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.05 percent to 36,387 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 1.04 percent to 10,907.
Momentum of trade was sluggish this week as broader equity benchmarks ended on a subdued note in four out of five sessions. But a rally in Reliance Industries Ltd. and Infosys Ltd. helped the Sensex and Nifty clock gains of over 1 percent each.
The mid- and small-cap shares underperformed their larger peers as the Nifty Midcap 100 Index declined 0.8 percent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 Index fell 0.4 percent.
“Market breadth was negative, and many stocks corrected but a few selected stocks rallied which took the benchmarks up,” AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDNI Capital Markets told BloombergQuint over phone, adding that even banking as an index underperformed the Nifty.
Going forward it will be a very selective market and investors must be in stocks which are going to give returns, said Prabhakar. “We are very positive on RIL, its result was fantastic and their consumer facing sectors did well during the quarter.”
Big Stock Moves Of The Week
- Reliance Industries surged 7.86 percent, its best weekly performance in six months, to Rs 1,184.35 after it reported strong December quarter earnings. Reliance Industries’ profit rose for the sixteenth straight quarter even as relatively softer crude prices kept refining margin lower.
- Infosys rose for the fourth week in a row as stock climbed 7 percent to Rs 731 after the company raised its revenue growth projection aided by strong deal wins last week. Infosys also announced a share buyback and a special dividend.
- Jet Airways climbed 11 percent, the most in two months, to Rs 281.20 even as Naresh Goyal and Etihad Airways clashed over the resolution plan of the cash-strapped carrier.
- Sun Pharma dropped 12 percent to Rs 390.75, its lowest level in almost six years, after media reports suggested that a new whistle-blower complaint has been filed against the company with the SEBI.
Seven of the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty IT Index’s 4.1 percent gain. On the other hand, Nifty Media Index was the top loser, down 4.3 percent.
Rupee weakened the most among Asian currencies this week as oil was on track for third consecutive week of gains and also over concerns that the fiscal deficit could be wider than target weighed on the investor sentiment.
The domestic unit declined for the second week in a row, falling 0.98 percent or 69 paise to 71.19 against the greenback.