Weekly wrap: Moody's upgrade boosts stock market

With the full working week in the new fiscal coming to an end, the broad index of the BSE-Sensex-rose 2.03% to close at 28,879.38 points.

Markets witnessed a substantial amount of buying during the week, driven by the Moody's upgraded outlook on India to 'positive' from 'stable'.

However, the Sensex on Friday snapped its five-day winning spree by losing a marginal 5.83 points to settle at 28,879.38, dragged down by profit-taking in the recent outperformers.

The RBI's status quo on the monetary policy remained uneventful for the indices.

The surge in BSE Sensex was supported by heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Dr. Reddy's laboratories, Coal India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Hinudstan Unilever and NTPC which climbed more than 5% during the week.

All the sectoral indices ended the week in green with metals, real estate and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) among the best performers, inching up 5-6 per cent.

The start of the week was on a solid note with benchmarks rallying around 0.5 per cent on Monday amid strong global cues and buying witnessed in defensive sector stocks such as Sun Pharma.

The latest week brought cheers for the Indian markets, which gaining in three out of two sessions, also managed to continue its gains from the last week.

Sumeet Bagadia, associate director, Choice broking says, "Investor sentiments got a hit after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2015-16 kept the repo rate unchanged at 7.5%."

However, on the next two days of trade, markets extended gains as sentiments remained upbeat on reports that Moody's Investors Service has changed India's outlook to 'positive' from 'stable'.

Meanwhile, global cues also remain supportive as Greece confirmed that it will pay a 450 million-euro loan tranche within the announced deadlines to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On the final day, market pared some gains as investors opted to book profit after five straight sessions of gains ahead of the release of Indian Industrial Production (IIP) data.

Jayant Manglik, president, retail distribution, Religare Securities further adds that from here on, banking sector holds the key for next directional move in Nifty.

Hence, traders should focus more on private banking counters alongside with infra, media and select midcap pack for fresh buying.

"In case of decline or profit taking from current levels, stocks from power, PSU banks can be considered for short bets," he adds. Of the total number of companies eligible for trading on Friday,-4,236-on the BSE, 121 remained unchanged, 1,647 stocks went up and 1,163 fell.

The mid-cap and small-cap sector were seen outperforming the boarder markets, rising around 0.39 per cent and 1.10 per cent respectively.