The 30-share BSE Benchmark Sensex ended the week on a strong note after opening the day with a positive gap at 145.46 points at 15,840.56. The markets remained strong on back of positive global signals. BSE Sensex touched an intraday peak of 15,957.24.

BSE Sensex failed to close near its intraday high and saw profit booking at higher levels.
Real estate, Banking and IT stocks performed weak whereas Power, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas stocks went up.

BSE Midcap Index ended 0.68% up at 6,523.22 and BSE Smallcap Index closed the week at 8,081.43 after registering a gain of 0.63%.

The inflation rate has climbed up to over three-year high at 7.41 percent for the week ending March 29 on the back of increasing pressure on the central bank to further tighten up supply of money in its approaching annual credit policy later this month.

The BSE Sensex closed the week at 15.807.64 after gaining 112.54 points, while the broad-based NSE Nifty ended at 4,777.80, up by 44.8 points.

On the same day, Asian stocks zoomed, powered by computer chipmakers on healthier future guidance. Japanese companies were major gainers among other regional markets.

On BSE, 1,637 stocks closed higher than previous close while 1,050 stocks declined.

Among the sectoral indices at BSE Oil & Gas and Power gained more than 2%, BSE Metal was up by 0.80%, whereas BSE Realty 0.29%. BSE IT was down by 0.47% while BSE Bankex lost 0.64%. BSE FMGC index dropped 1.29%.  

The major gainers list included BHEL, L&T, RIL, Satyam, REL, RComm, Hindalco, M&M, Tata Steel, TCS, Bharti Airtel, NTPC and Maruti.

The top losers’ list included Ambuja Cement, Infosys, HUL, ITC, Ranbaxy, ICICI Bank, Grasim, DLF, Tata Motors, ACC and ONGC.   

RPL topped the volume chart with 18.08 million shares and was followed by Vijaya Bank with volume of 13.72 million shares. RNRL was another top traded counter with 10.48 million shares.