Saturday, April 23 2005 13:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Buoyed by hopes of normal monsoon and flow of encouraging quarterly results from major corporates, the Sensex made a strong turnaround in volatile activity and ended the week up by 1.57 per cent despite heavy net sales by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

Satyam Computers, Nalco and UTI Bank beat the market expectations while Wipro surprised investors with a one for one bonus announcement.

After a two-weekly losing streak, the market staged a sharp recovery despite net sales of Rs 811.90 crore in the first three trading sessions from FIIs. The figures, however, were believed to include FIIs participation in the open offers. The Sensex had lost by over 356 points or 5.4 per cent in the last two weeks.

In the week to April 23, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index fluctuated erratically in a range of 6374.03 and 6118.42 before ending the week at 6346.57 as against last weekend's close of 6248.34, a net gain of 98.23 points.

Domestic Mutual Funds reported fairly heavy purchases to the tune of Rs 346.35 crore in the first three days, taking their net investments to Rs 768 crore so far in the month.

Meanwhile, global oil prices once again have soared past $ 55 a barrel. It settled at $ 55.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at the weekend.

The market is expected to remain cautious when its opens on Monday (Apr 25, 2005) for trading following a weak trend on Wall Street at the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index ended down by 60.89 points and 30.22 points yesterday (Apr 22, 2005).

Among other indices, the broad-based BSE-100 Index firmed up by 49.11 points to end the week at 3417.34 from previous weekend's close of 3368.23.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply up at 847.78 and 322.62 at the weekend compared to last weekend's close of 841.38 and 319.60 respectively.

The BSE-500 Index recovered smartly by 25.96 points to close the week at 2690.77 from preceding weekend's close of 2664.81 and the Dollex-30 finished at 1190.98 from 1170.41 at the last weekend.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the S&P CNX Nifty and the S&P CNX Defty improved by 11.05 points and 8.75 points to close the week at 1967.35 and 1558.15 against last weekend's close of 1956.30 and 1549.40 respectively. The CNX Nifty Junior moved up by 39.60 points to conclude the week at 4185.70 from 4146.10.

During the four-session week, the volume of business on the BSE and the NSE rose sharply to Rs 9,779 crore and Rs 21,232 crore compared to last week's turnover of Rs 6759 crore and 14,094 crore respectively.