Terrorist attacks and record oil prices threaten the bull run

08 July 2005

The week was quite a dramatic one for the Indian stock markets as they sought new peaks in the early part of the week and came crashing down on Thursday after the London bomb blasts.

On Monday the indices continued their surge from the previous week as operators built up positions in the July derivative series and took both the indices to all time closing highs.

The terrorist attack in Ayodhya shook the markets on Tuesday as they were trading firm in early trades and the Sensex had crossed the 7300 mark for the first time. The indices closed weaker on reports of political protests against the attacks.

Markets chose to forget about Ayodhya by Wednesday as the met department came out with some encouraging news on the monsoon front. The indices managed to close at new all time closing highs.

The London bomb blasts led to a market crash on Thursday. The markets were trading with a negative sentiment when news of the blasts came and led to a decline of around 2 per cent on both the indices. The losses were partly recouped on Friday as traders took heart from the positive closing in the US markets on Thursday after the blasts.

After trailing the large caps for almost 2 weeks, mid-caps had another great week as frenzied buying came back to many of the actively traded stocks. Media and banking stocks were in the forefront as rumours and speculations about big ticket deals spread. Even the large drop on Thursday did not have much of an impact on smaller stocks. CNX Mid-cap 200 index closed the week very close to its life-time highs.