Sensex up 5.7 pc led by banking scrips

Mumbai, July 29: The impending hike in the RBI short term interest rates, the refusal by the US Federal Reserves chairman Ben Bernanke to go for another interest rate hike in August, and the West-Asia crisis sans the hike in crude oil price were the highlights of the week.

Notwithstanding the negative close on the last trading day, the BSE sensitive index this week was up 5.7 per cent led by strong performance by the banking sector. Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty too was up 6.1 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India hiked the short-term interest rates for Reverse Repo rates by 25 basis points, which is from 5.75 per cent to six per cent with a view to check the rising inflation.

The week however did not see any impact of the West Asia crisis on global bourses. Experts feel the markets have taken the war like crisis into their stride as a global phenomenon.

The sectoral indices on the BSE too gained during the week especially led by the banking stocks, which gained 12.7 per cent for the week. SBI was up 7.5 per cent and ICICI was up 5.5 per cent.

Capital goods was up 8.3 per cent and the health sector, led by Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's Lab and Cipla, were up by 5 per cent. Auto sector, led by Bajaj Auto, Maruti and Hero Honda, were up by 5.3 per cent for the week. The smallcap sector was up by 5.2 per cent and the IT sector was up by 1.2 per cent for the week.

Major gainers on the index on the last day were ACC up by 2.23 per cent to Rs 848.60, Dr Reddy's Lab was up by 2.56 per cent to Rs 1402.30, Grasim Industries up by 2.08 per cent to Rs 2117.50, HDFC Bank by 1.09 per cent to Rs 795.55, Ranbaxy up by 1.75 to Rs 372.10, SBI was up by 4.44 per cent to Rs 796.70, BHEL was up by 0.79 per cent to Rs 1967.60 and Reliance Communications was up by 0.82 per cent to Rs 258.60.

Losers on the last day of trading were TCS down 50.98 per cent to Rs 928.00, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.78 per cent to Rs 394.80, Bajaj Auto was down 2.76 per cent to Rs 2475.45, Hindalco was down by 1.96 per cent to Rs 2475.45, Maruti Udyog down by 1.64 per cent 768.40, Reliance Industries was down by 1.84 per cent to Rs 980.15, Tata Motors was down by 1.45 per cent to Rs 727.15 and Infosys was down by 1.46 per cent to Rs 1629.10.

UNI