Volatile week as markets wait for Reliance settlement

Rex Mathew
04 June 2005

Markets opened the week on a weak note as traders booked profits after the previous week's strong rally. Weakness was seen in commodity and oil stocks. A rally in TCS and ONGC stocks helped reduce the losses on the Nifty as compared to the Sensex.

Tuesday saw the indices bounce back as FII's came back as buyers. Reliance Energy managed substantial gains after reports of huge investment plans in power generation.

Markets were subdued on Wednesday and the indices closed flat. Some action was seen in the two-wheeler stocks as they reported good volume growth for the month of May.

The indices lost over a per cent each on Thursday as commodity stocks faced large selling pressure. Profit booking in select stocks like HLL and ITC led to further weakness. Good shipment volumes reported by cement companies for May could not hold the stock prices from declining.

Friday was all about hopes and renewed expectations about Reliance settlement and the disinvestment programme. The indices surged as all Reliance group shares made smart gains. News of possible disinvestment in Nalco gave further strength to the rally.

The markets had a short trading session on Friday as well, reportedly to test the system back up facilities of NSE. Institutional participation and hence volumes were very low as expected. The indices closed without much change.