Simply spectacular is a short way of summing up the market performance this week. Indian stocks raced to near 52-week highs on the back of a ~2% surge on Friday as they turned best-performers globally. This week’s ascent can be attributed entirely to the Government’s new-found enthusiasm on economic reforms. Last week’s announcements were followed up with formal notification of FDI norms for various sectors.
 
The Government also slashed withholding tax on overseas borrowings to attract critical foreign capital flows, besides approving an equity market scheme for smaller investors. The rupee too benefited from the UPA’s reforms push.
 
The issue of UPA Government’s stability was also settled after the Samajwadi Party said it will support the Congress-led regime from outside. With the troublemaker TMC out of the way, the Government seems all the more emboldened to go ahead with pending reforms. Markets could rise further if the bottlenecks to fresh domestic investments are removed. Global markets also need to be supportive. 
 
However, one must be careful as inflation remains sticky and the RBI may take a while before slashing rates. The external situation also remains fragile, especially in Europe and China.

For the week, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty ended at 18753 and 5691 adding 2% and 1.6% respectively.

Also Read… UPA’s reform drive lifts Sensex…Nifty crosses 5700

Sensex top gainers: The top gainers in the Sensex were Reliance Power (up 16.4%), Reliance Infra (up 15.6%), Reliance Capital (up 13.9%), BHEL (up 13.4%) and SBI (up 12.1%).

Sensex losers: The top losers in the Sensex were TCS (down 7.5%), Wipro (down 3.7%), Hindustan Unilever (down 2.9%), ITC (down 2.5%) and Cipla (down 2.3%).

The BSE IT Index (down 3.6%):The top losers in the IT sector were TCS (down 7.5%), Wipro  (down 3.7%), HCL Tech  (down 2.3%), Infosys  (down 1.4%) and Oracle Financial (down 0.7%).

Mphasis gained 0.7% during the week.

The BSE Healthcare Index (down 2.2%):The top gainers in the Pharma space were Aurobindo Pharma (up 4.1%), Marksans Pharma (up 3.3%), Zandu Pharma (up 3.1%), Glenmark Pharma (up 1.4%) and Lupin  (up 1.2%).

The top losers were Panacea Biotec (down 18.9%), Wockhardt  (down 6.1%), Glaxosmithkline (down 5.6%), Dr Reddy's Labs (down 5.6%) and Astrazeneca Pharma (down 4.2%).

The BSE Auto Index (up 3.3%):The top gainers in the auto space were Ashok Leyland (up 9.1%), M&M (up 4.5%), Maruti Suzuki (up 4.4%), Hindustan Motors (up 3.6%) and Bajaj Auto  (up 3.3%).

The top losers were Eicher Motors (down 0.6%) and Swaraj Mazda (down 0.4%).

The BSE Oil & Gas Index (up 1.6%):The top gainers in the oil & gas space were Gujarat NRE Coke (up 6%), Chennai Petroleum (up 4.4%), ONGC (up 3.2%), Hindustan Oil (up 1.9%) and IOC (up 1.8%).

The top losers were MRPL (down 2.7%), Cairn India (down 1.8%), Shiv-Vani Oil (down 1.5%), BPCL (down 1.3%) and Essar Oil  (down 1%).

The Telecom Sector: The top gainers in the telecom space were RCom (up 22%), TTML (up 11%), Bharti Airtel (up 9.1%), WWIL (up 6.7%) and Idea Cellular (up 5.2%).

The Realty Sector (up 8.8%):The top gainers in the real estate space were HDIL (up 20.4%), Ansal Props (up 19.9%), Anant Raj Indus (up 19.6%), Peninsula Land (up 12.4%) and Unitech  (up 11.7%).

The Metals sector (up 3%):The top gainers in the metals sector were Jindal Steel (up 15.2%), SAIL (up 9.4%), Tata Metaliks (up 7.8%), JSW Steel  (up 2.2%) and Ispat Industries (up 1.3%).

The top losers were Monnet Ispat (down 1.7%), Jindal Stainless (down 1.7%), Tata Sponge (down 0.5%) and Sunflag Iron (down 0.2%).