The 30 share index, Sensex lost 649.24 points to 8,674.35 during the week ended Jan 23, 2009. In contrast, the broad based NSE Nifty tumbled 149.9 points to 2,678.55 in the same period.

Sensex remained choppy throughout the week chasing weak global cues. Meager corporate earnings of top companies dragged the index in the negative zone.

On Monday (Jan 19), Sensex belled the week at 9,381.78 after making a gain of 58.19 points in line with global peers.

Afterwards, it traded flat and saw volatility all-through the day. In the noon trades, Sensex traded in a range bound mode and finally ended the day marginally higher.

The Sensex, on Tuesday (Jan 20), opened weak after losing 169.81 points at 9,159 following negative global signals.

Finally, Sensex closed the day sharply lower. All sectoral indices traded weak except power. Heavy selling action was seen in metal, banking, realty and frontline stocks. The Sensex continued to trade weak as foreign funds began selling activated by $41 billion loss suffered by Royal Bank of Scotland. But, it pared the majority of its losses as European market belled the day positively.

The further backing to the equities market came from the statement made by CERC that it has lifted the RoE for power units to 15.5% as compared to 14% that supported the PSU power stocks and a few private power stocks to gain substantially. This also gave support to the indices.

Afterwards, the Indian markets had no relief, and continued its weak run on Wednesday (Jan 21) too. The Sensex opened the day on a weak note at 8,900.78, down 199.77 points.

On the back of continued selling action by funds triggered by weakening global trends, the Sensex fell further during closing session. Stocks from FMCG sector went up while metal, power, banking and oil & gas hammered badly.

High hopes for details on how the new US government would tackle the increasing banking crisis and falling economy were dampened as the inaugural speech by the 44th President of America, Barack Obama finished the inauguration speech with little new information to digest.

On Thursday (Jan 22), the BSE Sensex belled the day positively after making a gain of 126.80 points at 8,905.97. Afterward, the stock index traded in a listless manner due to lack of cues and because of growing inflation in the noon trades. But, the Sensex lost all its gains and fell into negative on heavy profit booking by investors.

At last, it bounced back into the positive terrain on the back of heavy buying action witnessed in frontliners to close the day on a flat note. The Sensex ended marginally higher in late trade owing to buying action witnessed in index pivotals.

Indian equities on Friday (Jan 23) belled the day at 8,804.15, down 9.69 points, with negative bias tracking global signals.

After few minutes of trading, Sensex came up into the positive zone and hit a high of 8,858.84 amid volatility. Afterward, the index fell back into the pessimistic zone and slipped further on intense selling witnessed in frontline stocks. Heavy selling action was witnessed in banking, realty and metal stocks.

After slumping for ten consecutive weeks, India’s benchmark wholesale price index (WPI), inflation, grew marginally to 5.60% for the week ended January 10, as compared to 5.24% during the last week. It stood at 4.36% a year ago.

During the week, mid-cap stocks fell 176.64 points to 2,850.19, while small-cap shares lost 157.23 points to 3,255.54.

Among major losers in the sectoral indices over the week, Realty fell 12.19%, Metal dropped 11.38%, Capital Goods declined 7.99%, Auto lost 7.10%, and TECk slipped 5.54%.