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Mixed signals in market over past week

The market opened on a firm note with the BSE Sensex shoting up by 50 points in the inaugural session of the week. The market continued the firm trend for three trading sessions following good buying by local operators and speculators in the index-based scrips.

The market witnessed a weak spell towards the weekend and the 30-share BSE Sensex, the benchmark of the country's premier exchange reported marginal decline during the last two trading sessions. It, however, reported a moderate recovery compared to the previous week.

Marketmen attributed the mixed trend to various factors including, India's nuclear tests, by which the country invited the ire of America, Japan, China, and Pakistan, that caused the fall of the Indian rupee's value against the US dollar.

According to traders, the news of proxy war on the borders with Pakistan caused havoc in the stock market as the foreign institutional investors and bull operators thought it safe to stay away from the day's trading during the later part of the week. Nominal trading was witnessed as Unit Trust of India marked its presence on the buying counter.

No activity was witnessed and the market maintained its dull trend as the players shied away from fresh trading fearing the worst, mainly during the last two sessions.

Reflecting the trend, the Sensex recovered by 47.30 points to 3897.10 and the Natex gained by 25.22 points to 1725.25 as against the previous close of 3849.80 and 1700.03 points respectively.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices staged a recovery of 6.71 and 3.45 points to 391.20 and 160.50 points respectively as against the previous close. Total turnover of the BSE advanced by Rs 11.1 billion to Rs 63.1 billion as against Rs 52 billion.

Software scrips were in heavy demand and their prices shot up as huge amount of scrips were bought by domestic institutions and local operators, market sources said.

Prominent shares like State Bank of India, Hindalco, Telco and Videocon also reported moderate demand from institutional investors.

The Indian rupee which touched a historic low by crossing the Rs 40 level dropped further to close at Rs 40.62-65 as against previous close of Rs 40.50-55 per dollar.

Most of the FIIs and also the leading domestic players had adopted wait and watch attitude in view of the forthcoming Union budget presentations. The marketmen expect some sops for the betterment of the capital market.

ITC's annual results, declared on Friday, could not bring any cheer to the market despite the tobacco major posting a net profit of Rs 5.26 billion.

The market also reported moderate recovery on the National Stock Exchange during the same week. The NSE-50 index gained by 16.45 points to 1126.55 points as against the previous close of 1110.10 points.

The Dollar-50 index also recovered by 11.85 points to 960.20 points as against the previous close of 948.35 points. The Midcap index reported a smart recovery of 89.40 points to 1640.35 points as against the previous close of 1550.95 points.

The total turnover on the NSE dropped by Rs 8.8 billion to Rs 86.5 billion as against the previos week's business volume of Rs 95.3 billion.

UNI