Markets see biggest weekly gain since May on divestment hopes

The markets unwounded all the downtrend seen in the last week due to the budget disappointment and clawed back with greater force of bulls. The optimisim on the street this week was on the ground of disinvestment process of government, which the markets had expected from the first Union Budget 2009-10 of UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government.

R Balakrishnan, Investment Analyst said, ''The rain seems to have washed away all the doubts of the budget and also we are hearing all the right noises; there is initial public offering (IPO) buzz. The market is fairly healthy now. The earning season has kicked off quite well. I think most results are strong.''

As per the sources of CNBC-TV18, the government has started the process of divestment in profit making public sector undertakings. Yesterday, they announced the sell of stake in the NMDC, which would raise over Rs 10,000 crore in near term.

Ministry of Finance said they would sell shares by diluting stake in NMDC, MMTC, Hindustan Copper, Engineers India and NTPC. They would sell 5-10% stake in each company. There would be more on the cards from the govt, this is just the beginning towards the goal of super power economy.

Positive global cues also brought the confidence among the traders as well as institutions, who supported this rally. The S&P 500 index surged 7% this week. Asian markets also saw strong rally.

Buying across the sectors pushed the Nifty close to 4400 and the Sensex towards the 15,000 mark. Both indices gained around 9% on week-on-week basis. Today, the 30-share Sensex touched an intraday high of 14,800.70, before closing the day at 14,744.92, up 494.67 points or 3.47%.