Sensex, Nifty rally; monkeys beat brokers

The markets breathed a sigh of relief in the last week of June, with the benchmark indices, the Sensex and Nifty, soaring on hopes that an agreement at the leaders’ summit will be a step closer to solving the European crisis.

The draft guidelines put out by the Prime Minister’s Office on the General Anti-Avoidance Rules, which helped ring in some clarity about the contentioustax issue, also boosted sentiment.

The upbeat mood was also evident in the rupee’s rise against the dollar.

The Sensex gained 2.7 percent and Nifty 2.6 percent for the week ended 30 June, 2012.

However, the star performer for the second week running was the Monkey portfolio 2, comprising 10 randomly selected stocks from the BSE 500 , which added a whopping 5.1 percent. The top mover was Manappuram Finance (28 percent), followed by Aban Offshore (10.7 percent).

Monkey portfolio 1, consisting of 10 randomly-picked stocks from the BSE 100 , also did reasonably well as it rose 2.4 percent. The experts’ portfolio, a collection of 10 stocks hand-picked by 10 market whizkids , was the sore loser this week as it closed with just a 1.5 percent gain.

For the period since inception of the three portfolios (19 August 2011), the benchmark indices lead gains as the Sensex has gained 8 percent and the Nifty 8.9 percent.

The brokers portfolio came in third ( see table ), pocketing a 4.2 percent gain helped by MRF (60.5 percent) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (37 percent). In comparison, monkey portfolio 1 ( see table ) was not far behind as it was up 3 percent since inception. For the hot blooded monkey-2, things have started looking up as the portfolio has pared losses.

Clearly the emerald ring that Monkey-2 ( see table ) was asked to buy seems to be doing wonders for him. Let us see if his luck continues through the next week. Until then, join them for a party at the Banana bar.