Sensex ends off day's high with gains of 161 points; registers 3rd straight week of losses

Domestic equities overcame last minute hiccups to end higher for second straight session on Friday, even as most of the early gains were lost towards the fag-end as steady outbreak of selling in pharma, banking, consumer durables and realty shares coupled with sluggish European markets saw the benchmark Sensex close off its day’s high. However, gains in IT, auto, metal and oil & gas shares helped the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex end the session at 26,392.38, up 161.19 points, or 0.6 percent from previous close. Intra-day, the index shot up 456 points to touch the day’s high of 26,687.33 before losing some ground in the final lap of the session. The broader 50-share CNX Nifty managed to end past the crucial 8,000-mark at 8,001.95, up 53 points, or 0.7 percent. [caption id=“attachment_2412248” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Despite the extended optimism, market breadth ended weak indicating more volatility days in the near term. Of the 2,803 stocks traded on BSE, 1,404 stocks declined, 1,294 advanced and 105 remained unchanged. Despite the two-day upsurge, the Sensex still ended the week with a huge loss of 974 points or 3.6 percent over the preceding week, mainly on the back of a huge 1,624 points crash on Monday triggered by a global sell-off. In fact, the downward spiral entered the third straight week, with the index taking a hit of 1,844 points or 6.7 percent during the period. The fall has mainly been triggered by the massive offloading of shares by foreign institutional investors or FIIs, who have liquidated Rs 19,000 crore worth of equities from the domestic market in last 10 out of 12 trading sessions. The figure also includes the provisional Rs 3,347 crore worth of shares sold by FIIs on Thursday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors or DIIs rose to the occassion and bought shares worth Rs 15,254 crore in last 12 trading sessions, providing some cushion to the market in such turbulent times. A day after stock markets rallied sharply across the globe, volatility once again came to the fore with Chinese markets ending mixed. While Shanghai Composite ended 4.8 percent higher, Hang Seng fell 1 percent. In mid-day trade, key European indices such as Germany’s DAX and Paris’ CAC were down 0.3-0.6 percent even as London-based FTSE traded marginally higher. Overcoming the side-ways movement, several Sensex constituents held on to their gains. Shares of Vedanta shot up 5.7 percent to Rs 96.35, ONGC flared up 5.6 percent to Rs 243.55, Bharti Airtel rose 4.3 percent to Rs 362.25, Bajaj Auto gained 3.6 percent to Rs 2,269.20, GAIL jumped 3.2 percent to Rs 289.80 and Infosys was up 2.4 percent at Rs 1,110.70. Among other gainers, shares of Wipro, NTPC, Tata Motors, Hindalco, BHEL, Tata Steel and Dr Reddy’s ended over 1-2 percent higher. Select index heavyweights, however, succumbed to selling pressure. Shares of Sun Pharma dropped 2 percent to Rs 884.95, Lupin declined 1.9 percent to Rs 1,862.70, Coal India shed 1 percent to Rs 357.40 and TCS was down 0.3 percent at Rs 2,570.65.