Weekly review: Sensex, Nifty gain 0.4%; realty stocks perform well

The key benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty gained around 0.4 per cent to 28,236.39 and 8,564.60 respectively for the week ended August 8, 2015. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were at 28,114.56 and 8,532.85 on July 31(last week). Market experts believe domestic equity markets are likely to remain volatile in coming weeks.

Between July 31 and August 7, the BSE Realty index gained 3.59 per cent at 1,437.20. It was followed by the BSE Auto index (up 3.44 per cent at 19765.17), BSE Consumer Durables index (up 2.95 per cent at Rs 11413.47) and BSE Healthcare index (up 2.78 per cent at Rs 17,521.15). The BSE Power index remained flat at 2,064.21.

Among Sensex stocks, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Hindalco Industries and State Bank of India gained 5.96 per cent, 4.75 per cent, 4.18 per cent and 4.06 per cent, respectively, for the week under review.

Share price of Coal India, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and GAIL (India) plunged 5.41 per cent, 4.63 per cent and 3.87 per cent, respectively, during the period.

Cummin India, Siemens, Dr Reddy’s Labortories, Dabur India, LIC Housing Finance, Aurobido Pharma and Ashok Leyland are some of the companies whose share price touched their all-time highs for the week ended July 7.

The Reserve Bank of India kept the key rates unchanged in its third bi-monthy monetary policy review this week, but strongly raised the hopes for rate cuts ahead.

Jimeet Modi, chief executive officer, SAMCO Securities, said, “Falling inflation rates, slow economic activities, drought fears receding, structurally, make a compelling case for rate reduction of 50 basis points by the end of the year.”

IPO of Power Mech Projects Ltd, which debuted on August 6, will be closed next week. Modi said, “The stock offers good value to short and medium term investors. Investors should subscribe to the issue which will offer listing gains and going forward can offer good capital gains in the medium term.”

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) with a retirement corpus of Rs 8.5 lakh crore, has cautiously kicked off the process of investing in the stock market on Thursday with an initial allocation of Rs 5,000 crore for the current fiscal.

“This will herald a far deeper equity investment culture in India, a much needed structural shift for long term growth of the nation and its citizen. India today has investing population of below 2 per cent where as in the developed countries it is around 50 per cent, EPFO investing in equities will usher in a beginning of equity culture in India,” said Modi.

Hiren Dhakan, associate fund manager, Bonanza Portfolio, said, “Indian equity markets are currently driven by domestic sentiments and stock specific action on the back of earnings season. We feel Greece’s crisis is resolved for the near term and we might see the developments in the Greek and other Euro economies impacting market trends for the near term. We believe the markets would continue to remain volatile for upcoming trading sessions and Nifty will remain between 8,100-8,500 in the near term.”