Indian equities started the week negatively tracking hopeless global cues and heavy selling action witnessed by FIIs as well as retail investors.
The Sensex touched the 8,000 mark, while the Nifty embraced the 2,300 level during intra-day. Afterward, it recovered some lost ground on account of short covering and buying by domestic institutional investors.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Tuesday celebrated Diwali at evening when the index posted a sharp 547-point gain taking back some eagerness among investors after five days of decline.

As investors made token deals during the positive ‘muhurat’ trading for Samvat 2065, the Sensex, buoyed up by a jump in global stock market, resumed the one-hour special trading session higher by 505.36 points at 9,014.92 over its last closure, halting a four-day free fall in the market.

On Wednesday, the Indian bourses opened strongly because of strong global cues. The 30-share index BSE Sensex opened the day at 9,297.76, up 289.68, as against its last closure (Tuesday) in which it gained 498.52 points. Expiry of the near month October 2008 derivatives contracts caused a huge amount of volatility all through the day.

The Indian markets remained closed on Thursday on account of ‘Bhaubeej.’

On Friday, the 30-share index, BSE Sensex opened the day after making a gain of 317.15 points at 9,361.66, as against its last closure on Wednesday, in which it gained 36.43 points.

The US Federal Reserve slashed bank rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday (Oct 29), and many other central banking institutions are likely to follow suit sooner than later.

For the week ended October 18, the inflationary figures fell to 10.68% as against 11.07% for the previous week. The annual rate of inflation stood at 3.11% during the same period of the last year (2007).

The 30 share index, Sensex gained 1,086.99 points to 9,788.06 in the week ended Oct 31, 2008, while the broad based NSE Nifty jumped 301.6 points to 2,885.60 during the same week.

Mid-cap index surged 104.34 points to 3,200.02 in the week’s time, whereas small-cap index gained 103.28 points to 3,765.11 in the same period.

The major gainers over the week included Metal that gained 22.16%, Oil & Gas rose 20.27%, Realty climbed 13.48%, Teck went up 13.20%, and IT rose 10.15%.

HC dropped 1.17%, and FMCG fell 0.99% among major losers in the sectoral indices over the week.