WEEKLY REVIEW: Markets end in green despite volatility

Late-noon short covering boosted markets to stage a spectacular recovery on the last trading day of this week. The Sensex gained 173 points from last week's close to end with a gain of 1% at 17,022. The Nifty surged 1% to 5,052, helped by banking and oil stocks.

Sensex gained the 17,000 level after dropping below it on Wednesday, slipping to its intra-week low of 16,636 on Friday. However, the index could not regain the week's high of 17,099 and ended 77 points lower from that.

Sectors such as auto, IT and metal did well. Metal index jumped 3.5% to 16,096. Auto and IT stocks added over 2% each. However, realty turned out to be a dissapointment and slipped 1% to 3,859.

Foreign investments and global markets led a crucial role in the Sensex's movement this week. The week ended on a positive note on the back of strong FII inflows even as concerns rose about the possibility of a cut in exporter's competitiveness.

Asian stocks however, continued their fall for the fourth day on Friday with the Taiwan Weighted slipping 0.99 per cent and the Hang Seng down 0.83 per cent.

"The uptrend in the market is on sustained liquidity and we can expect more fund flow to India when other BRIC nations  either imposed tax  or plans to impose tax on capital inflows," Alex Mathews, Head, Research, Geojit BNP Paribas.

Through the week, Tata Steel gained 5.5 per cent. Auto sector jumped. Hero Honda added 4.38 per cent, Maruti was up 4.06 per cent and Tata Motors advanced 3.56 per cent. IT was another pocket which did well as retail sales rebounded in US, their largest export market.

Reliance Infrastructure dipped 4.93 per cent this week, followed by Bharti Airtel (4.38 per cent) and ICICI Bank (1.35 per cent). Bharti had cut its roaming tariffs on Friday.