| The Indian stock market took a breather from its two- week rally in the past week to close with a negative undertone amid profit booking at the higher levels. It was a short week, as the market remained closed on Monday. The start of the week was on a positive note, with both the indices making new highs for 2009 and since May 23, 2008.
On a week-on-week basis, the BSE Sensex lost 48 points or 0.29% to close at 16693. The S&P CNX Nifty on the other hand finished the week at 4958.95, down by 17 points or 0.34%. The past week had been an eventful one, with derivative expiry in the domestic markets on one hand and the US FOMC meeting and G-20 meeting on the other hand. These events kept the market undertone cautious, helping it to see range bound changes with volatile trading sessions through out the week. | |
| From the last week's movement it has been clear that the participants are cautious and prefer booking profits at the higher levels. Some global events also raised concerns about how long this current rally would continue. The US Fed in its latest meeting has indicated that it would slow down purchases of mortgage debt and also would scale back short- term cash auctions by early 2010. Along with this, the announcement made by some European central banks that they would take some steps to curb massive US dollar injections into their banking systems, signaled that countries are now preparing to gradually exit from the stimulus packages that so far have been in place. Going ahead, this may put pressure on the market sentiment. Also, in the domestic front the headline inflation has turned positive and has started increasing again. This could be a concern for the market in the near future. Meanwhile, the coming week too is going to be a week shortened by holidays with only three trading days. We expect the overall market sentiment to remain weak with range bound movements. |
