The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rallied by another 522 points for the second consecutive week to an eight-week high of 18,762.80 on strong buying by operators and investors on the back of aggressive buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and easing of Greece’s debt worries.

Fast moving consumer goods, realty, metal, capital goods and banking counters were the major gainers of the week as most of the indices ended higher by 1.59 per cent to 4.24 per cent.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) — key players behind the on-going rally — bought shares nearly worth Rs 5,770 crore during the current week.

Sustained short-covering by operators following the expiry of derivatives contract too aided the rally. Concerns of a disorderly debt default from Greece eased after the government’s austerity programme was passed in Parliament.

The BSE benchmark Ssensex jumped 522.12 points or 2.86 per cent to end at 18,762.80. The NSE 50-share index Nifty also shot up by 155.95 points or 2.85 per cent to 5,627.20.

The BSE Mid-Cap index jumped 229.97 points or 3.45 per cent to 6,901.67. The BSE Small-Cap index surged 302.03 points or 3.81 per cent to 8,224.41.

According to CNI Research CMD Mr Kishor P. Ostwal, heavy short-coverings as well as Finance Minister’s statement that the economy will grow by around 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal helped the market to continue its north-bound journey.

Metal stocks rose as metal prices recovered on the London Metal Exchange after an earlier steep fall.

Auto stocks rose as the hike in diesel price of Rs 3 per litre announced by the government after trading hours on last Friday was lower than the market expectations of a hike of Rs 4 per litre.

FMCG stocks rose on expectations that a strong monsoon will boost the demand from rural areas and also reduce the input prices.

Major gainers from the Sensex pack were Hindalco (7.81 per cent), State Bank Of India (6.09 per cent), Sterlite (6.08 per cent), BHEL (5.26 per cent), HDFC (5.22 per cent), HDFC Bank (4.85 per cent), TCS (4.41 per cent), Tata Steel (4.04 per cent), Larsen (3.95 per cent), HUL (3.90 per cent), ITC (3.41 per cent), ICICI Bank (2.76 per cent), Bajaj Auto (2.74 per cent), Jindal Steel (2.53 per cent) and Jaiprakash Associates (2.52 per cent).

The total turnover on the BSE and NSE rose to Rs 13,920.41 crore and Rs 60,295.15 crore, respectively from the last week-end level of Rs 12,842.24 cr and 51,846.36 crore.

Forex: The rupee snapped its two-week losing string and bounced back to settle the week higher by 42 paise at a two-month high of 44.57/58 against the Greenback on bullish local stocks amid frenzied capital inflows.

Continued dollar selling by exporters and some banks on expectations of further fall in American currency overseas due to a smart rise in euro after Greek’s parliament approved the legislation for implementing stringent austerity measures boosted the rupee sentiment.

A firm trend in other Asian peers too aided the rupee sentiment.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit opened the week lower at 45.06/07 a dollar from last week-end close of 44.99/45.00 and immediately touched a low of 45.20 on the same day.

Later, it hovered in a positive terrain for the rest of the week and touched a high of 44.52 on Friday before settling at 44.57/58, a net rise of 0.93 per cent.

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