Markets make a promising start to the year with indices at new highs during the week

07 January 2006

Firm global markets and expectations about strong third quarter numbers from companies helped the indices to make a positive start to the year. Most markets across the globe continued the firm trend into the New Year as well. Major US and Asian indices are at multi-year highs as confidence on economic growth remains high.

The indices started the week on a firm note on Monday as the Sensex closed in on 9500. Profit booking later in the day led to a decline and markets closed with marginal losses.

The Sensex gained more than 100 points each on the next two days as most frontline stocks surged on expectations of strong quarterly numbers later this month. By Wednesday the Sensex went past the 9600 mark and the Nifty crossed the 2900 levels to new lifetime highs.

Traders booked some profits on Thursday after the indices opened on a firm note. Friday saw the indices turning volatile as they recovered from heavy afternoon losses to close marginally higher.

The Sensex gained 242 points or 2.58 per cent during the week and the Nifty went up by 77 points or 2.71 per cent over the week. The Sensex saw a new high of 9680 and the Nifty recorded a new intra-day high of 2922.

Mid-caps outperformed the frontline stocks by a wide margin during the week as the mid-cap index closed with gains on all five days of the week. The index gained over 2 per cent on Tuesday and maintained the uptrend for the rest of the week. Good investor response to newly listed stocks kept the market interest high in smaller stocks. The CNX Mid-Cap 100 index gained 173 points or 4.29 per cent during the week.