It was a turbulent week for the Indian markets with the benchmark index plunging below the 16K mark mid-week. The pull-back on Friday helped the Sensex close at 16,225, though the index was down by 1.4 per cent for the week. The Nifty closed the week with a loss of 1.1 per cent. The mid-cap and small-cap counters did not see a significant recovery even after the rally at the end of the week. BSE indices were down 2.5-3 per cent.

The mid-week plunge in the market was triggered by Moody's downgrade of SBI. The recovery in the latter part mirrored that of the Asian markets on positive cues from the Euro-zone.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex was the worst performer. The index dropped 4.6 per cent for the week. Investors downgraded banking stocks on the fear that rising interest rates may see NPAs increasing.

Moody's had put it very clearly that it was the slippage in asset quality and low capital adequacy with SBI that forced it to downgrade the bank.

SBI was down 8 per cent for the week. On Wednesday, SBI touched its 52-week low at Rs 1708.55. Allahabad Bank too was down 8 per cent while Indian Bank dropped 7 per cent.

On the losers list, there were also many telecom stocks. The BSE TECk index was down 1.8 per cent. The top loser in the index was Idea Cellular , down 9 per cent. News that the DoT was investigating players in the industry for misreporting revenues and enjoying a lower license fee prompted investors' selling of telecom stocks in a panic.

The stock of SCI closed the week down 17 per cent.

Concern over the company's rising debt levels saw investors abandoning the stock.

Rolta India plunged 13 per cent by the end of the week on reports that the company's promoters pledged a significant portion of their holding in the company.

Of the few stocks that reported smart gains during the week were those in the metal and cement spaces.

With metal prices edging higher on the London Metal Exchange, Sterlite Industries and Jindal Steel and Power made some good gains.

Cement stocks were in the limelight on revived demand for the commodity in the central and eastern parts of the country. It was, however, only the stock of ACC that held the gains made during the initial part of the week and closed with a gain of 1.5 per cent.

comment COMMENT NOW