News Tonight

After the loss by the Indian stock markets during the last month, valuations turned reasonable for capitalists.

As a result, FIIs altered their position this month and become strong buyers.

Thus on account of FII flows, the Indian stock markets shrugged some of its slowdown-linked stress and notched gains for the week.

The bourses showed resilience even in the face of feeble worldwide markets that are likely to close the week with meager losses.

The US bourses sold off in the week on poor employment facts and pessimistic news flow on Greece.

Among the sectoral indices, CD gained the most accompanied by FMCG, Healthcare and Capital goods.

The 30 share index BSE Sensex surged 110.38 points (0.60%) to 18,376.48 during the week ended June 03.

In contrast, the broad based Nifty gained 40.65 points to 5,516.75 during the same period.

During the week, the mid-cap index surged 165.78 points (2.46%) to 6,896.14, while the small-cap index grew by 128.83 points (1.59%) to 8,238.69 during the week.

All sectoral indices closed the week on a mixed note.

The major gainers included CD (3.61%) accompanied by FMCG, Healthcare, Capital goods and Realty, which surged more than 2% each.

The remaining Power, PSU and Teck gained more than 1%, whereas IT and Bankex remained marginally up 0.89% and 0.73% respectively.

But, BSE Auto, Oil & gas and Metal declined 1.94%, 0.78% and 0.59% respectively in the week.

For the week ended May 21, food inflation declined to 8.06% on account of cheaper pulses, wheat and some veggies.

Mr. Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL stated, "We've had some relief on FII flows. Hopefully, the current trend of a gradual upward move will continue in the near term. But, the macro-economic backdrop remains challenging as has been underscored by the GDP data and other reports. Other area of concern is the muted trading volumes. RBI mid-quarter review on June 16, EGoM on fuel prices on June 9, April IIP data on June 10 and May inflation on June 14 would be the important events that could have a bearing on the direction of the markets in the coming days."

While opining on the market viewpoint, Mr. Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, Kotak Securities, stated, "The Indian markets are likely to remain range-bound in the next few days. The economic data has been indicative of a moderation in growth. Inflation has also been resilient and the RBI may affect a further rate hike at its policy meeting in June. On the positive side, valuations are reasonable and monsoons also seem to be largely ontrack."

Mr. Sanjeev stated that their favorite segments comprise IT, banking, metals and media.