Expectations of another stimulus package by the government, hopes of further rate cuts by RBI and buying activity by FIIs (foreign institutional investors), helped the stock market recover losses of the previous week.

Indian equities gained in four out of the five trading sessions of the week, which ended on January 2, 2009.

On Friday, the 30-share-index opened positively but slipped into the red after a while as some of the blue chip stocks faced stiff resistance at higher levels.

But, it got well soon with realty, banking, capital goods and power stocks leading the gaining charts.

Information technology and automobile stocks remained rather subdued on Friday and not much buying action was witnessed in pharmaceutical and FMCG segments as well.

Buying activity gained momentum soon after news came that the administration is likely to announce a second fiscal stimulus plan later in the day.

Though some stocks drifted lower on profit taking, the Sensex, which touched an intra-day high of 10070.28, a level last seen on December 18, still managed to mark its closure positively at 9958.22, up 54.76 points. It also touched an intra-day low of 9863.86 on profit-selling by funds.

The National Stock Exchange’s 50 stock Nifty index, which touched an intra-day high of 3079.85, marked its closure at 3046.75 after gaining 13.30 points.

The overall market breadth was strong as it witnessed 1702 advancements as against 820 declinations.

The major gainers of the day were Hindalco (3.25%), DLF (3.05%), Reliance Infrastructure (3%), HDFC (2.7%), Tata Motors (2.6%), Reliance Industries (2.45%), Reliance Communications (2.05%), Mahindra & Mahindra (1.7%), ITC (1.55%), ICICI Bank (1.55%) and State Bank of India (1.1%).

The gainers’ list also included NTPC, BHEL, Tata Steel, HDFC, TCS, Ranbaxy Laboratories, L&T, India Infoline, Nagarjuna Construction Company, Hindustan Construction Company, Gujarat Minerals, Jubilant Organosys, GMR Infrastructure, Gammon India, Container Corporation, IVRCL Infrastructure, BGR Energy, United Phosphorus, Chambal Fertilizers, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Torrent Power, Kotak Bank, Lupin, Edelweiss Capital, LIC Housing Finance, Godrej Industries and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers.

On the other hand, the major losers of the day were Satyam Computer Services, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Tata Power, Infosys Technologies, Hindustan Unilever, Grasim Industries, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, ACC, Sterlite Industries, Jaiprakash Associates, Zee Entertainment, Suzlon Energy, Hero Honda, Ambuja Cements and Reliance Petroleum closed with sharp losses.

The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 629.30 points to 9,958.22 during the week. The S&P CNX Nifty rose 189.50 points or 6.63% to 3,046.75 in the same period.