Indices gain on good corporate results, developments

21 January 2006

The week started on a dull note on Monday as traders waited for more news flows and corporate results to come in. Most index stocks were weak on Tuesday but a massive rally in Reliance Industries helped the indices to hold on to the previous day's levels.

The special trading session for Reliance Industries went off well on Wednesday and the de-merged RIL stock closed higher than analysts' expectations. However, a massive sell-off across Asian markets saw the indices decline during the regular session, as a result of which RIL, too, declined in the regular session.

Thursday saw a massive recovery as both the Sensex and Nifty gained around 2.5 per cent each. Good results from a host of large companies kept the excitement alive. Jet Airways announced the acquisition of Sahara on Thursday.

Indices maintained their up trend on Friday as well as corporate results continued to be good. ICICI Bank, Maruti and Satyam Computers announced better than expected quarterly numbers.

The Sensex gained 147 points or 1.57 per cent during the week and the Nifty added 54 points or 1.9 per cent over the week.

Mid-caps closed the week without much change from the previous week's closing levels. The first three days saw the smaller stocks losing ground considerably. Though they recovered on the last two days of the week, overall gains were only marginal. The CNX Mid-Cap 100 index gained 12 points or 0.3 per cent during the week.