The market ended positive for the fifth successive week, driven by a smart rally in stocks like TCS, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Reliance. Sectorally, all index closed higher, except BSE Power index which down 0.6%. BSE Oil & Gas index surged 3%. The BSE Metal index gone up 2.2%, and the BSE Consumer Durables index, up 2.1%. Both the BSE Bankex and Realty gained 1.6% each while, BSE IT rallied 1.4%. BSE Telecom index gone up 1.4%. With Reliance Jio unleashing a price war by announcing this week to end its free offers by March 31. Bharti Airtel on Friday 24th, announced to acquire Telenor India.
Among individual stocks, Reliance Industries advanced 11%, Axis Bank rose 7%, HDFC Bank up 5%, Asian Paints advanced 4% and Sun Pharma added 4%. Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Coal India jumped 3% each.
Losers included NTPC going down 3%, Dr Reddy’s 1% down and Power Grid 0.8% down and M&M went down 0.6%.
The minutes of the last Fed Open Market Committee meeting unveiled that the Fed officials are divided respecting interest rate increase. Looking ahead the next week, Global cues will direct the market next week with U.S president Donald Trump likely to be announcing his tax plans.