Continuing its firm trend for the third consecutive week, following good buying in realty, consumer durables and auto counters, the BSE benchmark Sensex showed a weekly gain of 95 points.

The marginal gains were mainly due to cautious approach of operators and investors ahead of the first quarter corporate results.

The Sensex opened the week higher at 18,896.24 and hovered in a range of 19,131.70 and 18,682.60 before settling at 18,858.04 on Friday, a rise of 95.24 points or 0.51 per cent from its last week’s close.

The 30-share index rallied to its nine-and-a-half week high of 19,131.70 on Friday on sustained capital inflows from foreign funds into equity market.

However, it declined immediately amid profit-booking in blue chips and a heavy sell-off in metals and mining firms as a the new Bill proposed profit-sharing with people affected by projects.

The draft Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Bill, 2011, has proposed to make it mandatory for coal miners to share 26 per cent of their profits, while companies mining other resources will be required to pay 100 per cent of the royalty on their production to project-affected people.

Realty stocks continued to attract good buying support, resulting in the BSE-Realty index surging further by 7.12 per cent. Consumer durables and auto counters too were in keen demand.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree for the week as they picked up shares worth Rs 3,593.93 crore against Rs 6,256.10 crore last week.

Recent political worries after 75 MLAs and 12 MPs from ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh resigned over demand for separate Telangana state also affected the market mood.

Food inflation fell for the second week in a row to a seven-week low of 7.61 per cent for the week ended June 25 from 7.78 per cent in the last week.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved up by 33.45 points or 0.59 per cent to end at 5,660.65.

The BSE-Consumer Durable index shot up 4.15 per cent and the BSE-Auto index 3.63 per cent.

Shares of small-cap and mid-cap were also in keen demand. As a result, the small-cap index rose 1.83 per cent and the mid-cap index hardened by 1.37 per cent.

Major gainers from the Sensex pack were DLF (7.49 per cent), Reliance Infra (7.56 per cent), Tata Motors (5.91 per cent), Bharti Airtel (3.82 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (3.56 per cent), Bajaj Auto (2.56 per cent), HDFC Bank (2.46 per cent) and State Bank of India (2.38 per cent).

However, Sterlite Industries fell 3.94 per cent, followed by BHEL (3.22 per cent), ICICI Bank (3.17 per cent), Jaipraksh Associates (1.97 per cent), Jindal Steel (1.55 per cent), Tata Power (1.28 per cent) and Tata Steel (1.25 per cent).

Total turnover on the BSE and NSE was Rs 15,233.28 crore and Rs 54,892.40 crore, respectively, against Rs 13,920.41 crore and Rs 60,295.15 crore previously.

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