Indices close the last week of the year at new highs

31 December 2005

The markets started the week on a disastrous note as selling continued from the last day of the previous week. Indices gave up nearly 2 per cent each in across the board selling. Most of the selling was attributed to squaring up of long positions ahead of the derivative expiry on Thursday.

The indices recovered sharply on Tuesday as Reliance Industries surged 4 per cent, helping both frontline indices to regain all of Monday's losses. Telecom stocks recovered from the previous day's fall. Markets turned volatile on Wednesday and closed with marginal losses.

Thursday saw strong gains in Reliance Industries and ONGC which helped the indices to close higher. The derivative settlement went off smoothly with some of the large stocks showing good roll over.

Weakness in other Asian markets and rise in crude oil prices did not affect Indian indices on Friday as the Sensex went past the 9400 mark in intra-day trades. The Sensex finally closed the week and year 2005 at a new lifetime closing high of 9398.

The Sensex gained 141 points or 1.52 per cent during the week and the Nifty went up by 32 points or 1.14 per cent over the week.

Movement in mid-cap stocks were in line with the frontline stocks. They opened the week with heavy losses like the larger stocks before recovering on Tuesday. They escaped the volatility in larger stocks on Wednesday and closed flat. After gaining more than half-a-per cent on Thursday the mid-cap index closed the week and year with gains of over a per cent on Friday. The CNX Mid-Cap 100 index gained 66 points or 1.66 per cent during the week.