Weekly market wrap: Sensex surges over 1,900 points in five days; here’s why

It turned out to be a solid week for the domestic equity market as the benchmark equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty climbed over 3 per cent in the past five trading sessions. The benchmark BSE Sensex gained 1,914 points to 59,276 on April 1, 2022, against 57,362 on March 25. Likewise, the 50-share NSE Nifty index jumped 517 points to 17,670 during the same period.

Market watchers believe that a sharp fall in crude oil prices aided market sentiment. In the international markets, Brent crude oil retreated 14 per cent to $103.66 per barrel from around $121 a barrel last week. Meanwhile, robust goods and services tax (GST) numbers further fuelled the rally on the last day of the week.

GST collections in March rose to a record Rs 1.42 lakh crore as the economy slowly recovered from the Omicron wave, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

As many as 37 stocks in the Nifty ended settled the week in the green. With a rally of 8 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra emerged as the top gainer in the list. It was followed by Tata Consumer Products (up 7.70 per cent), Axis Bank (up 7.39 per cent), Power Grid (up 7.35 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (up 6.93 per cent). On the other hand, Hindalco, Hero MotoCorp, ONGC and Apollo Hospital slipped up to 8 per cent.

Amol Athawale, deputy vice president-technical research, Kotak Securities said, “Investors cheered the strong GST numbers for March while reports about Russia started pulling out some troops from the Ukraine capital also aided the sentiment.”

Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services said, “Oil prices plunged during the week due to rising covid cases in China and reports that the US is releasing substantial petroleum reserves to curtail fuel price hikes. Easing crude oil prices is positive for the market as it helps corporates to reduce their margin pressure.”

Sectorwise, the BSE Telecom index gained the most 6.10 per cent. The BSE Realty, Bankex, Power, FMCG, Auto and Oil & Gas gained between 3 per cent and 5.7 per cent. On the other hand, the BSE Metal index declined 1.70 per cent during the week gone by.

In the forthcoming week, the market participants will zero in on the Russia-Ukraine war, movement in crude prices and RBI’s policy announcement due next week (April 6-8).

"The volatility is expected to continue in the market until commodity prices subside and supply constraints get resolved,” Nair added.

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