Wkly review: Markets end in red

The markets ended in red as global worries resurfaced following the S&P downgrade on Greece, Portugal and Spain. Also back home, the derivatives expiry for the April series saw pressure on select index heavyweights.

The Sensex moved in a range of 482 points. The index touched a high of 17,826, and then dropped to a low of 17,344. However, the index recovered some of its lost ground towards the end of the week on renewed buying interest in financials and auto stocks. Overall, the week saw significant losses for metals, realty and select energy shares.

Amnong the Sensex 30 stocks - Sun Pharma slumped 7% to Rs 1,567. Jaiprakash Associates, DLF and Maruti tumbled over 6% each to Rs 147, Rs 311 and Rs 1,280, respectively. Reliance shed 5% at Rs 1,033, and Tata Steel dropped 4.5% to Rs 619. Grasim, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Reliance Communications and TCS declined 2-4% each.

On the other hand, Sterlite surged over 4% to Rs 828. HDFC and ONGC moved up nearly 4% each to Rs 2,822 and Rs 1,055, respectively. Tata Motors rallied 3.3% to Rs 873, and HDFC Bank advanced 2.5% to Rs 1,992. SBI, Reliance Infrastructure, Hero Honda and Mahindra were up 1% each.

The NSE Nifty moved in a range of 140 points. The index touched a high of 5,342 on Monday, and then tumbled to a low of 5,202 on Wednesday. The index finally settled with a loss of 26 points at 5,278.

In the process, the Sensex added 31 points in the month of April, while the Nifty was up 29 points.

Mid-cap and Small-cap indices outperformed the BSE Sensex during the week.
 
The mid-cap index gained 1% and small-cap index was marginally up 0.08% between April 26 and April 30, compared with the almost 1% fall in the Sensex.
 
In the mid-cap space, Indiabulls Financial Services, United Phosphorus, Indian Bank, Eicher Motors, Nirma and Great Offshore appreciated by more than 10% each after reporting strong net profit growth for the quarter ended March 2010. 
 
And in the small-cap space, Shree Ram Urban Infrastructure, Cholamandalam DBS Finance, LGS Global and Spice Mobiles gained over 24% each during the week.
 
Indiabulls Financial Services appreciated by 20% from Rs 129 to Rs 154 after reporting a nearly three-fold jump in net profit to Rs 307 crore for FY10 on back of strong loan asset growth and net interest income.
 
Eicher Motors gained 16% to Rs 802 (Rs 693) after the company reported an over two-fold jump in net profit for the first quarter ended March 2010 at Rs 40 crore  (Rs 16 crore) on account of higher sales and cost efficiency measures.
 
The prominent mid-cap losers during the week were MindTree, BF Utilities and United Breweries Holdings, which fell more than 8% each. And in the small-cap space, FCS Software, Nagarjuna Agrichem, Gujarat Ambuja Exports and Mangalam Cement declined by more than 10% each.
 
Among the sectoral indices, bankex, consumer durables, power, healthcare, auto and metal indices appreciated less than 1% each, while realty and oil&gas declined by 3% and 2% respectively. Capital goods, information technology and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) indices fell less than 1% each during the week.
 
Foreign institutional investors (Rs 385 crore) and domestic institutional investors (Rs 736 crore) made a combined net investment of Rs 1,121 crore during the week.