Previous Week : Sensex was down by 286.77 points for the week to settle at 17,636.80 levels
Market traded choppy with high volatility as the key benchmark indices closed the week with second consecutive weekly losses. The market reacted adversely as slowdown in GDP growth to 6.1% in the third quarter of 2011-2012 fiscal marking a seventh successive quarter of slowdown. Nifty started the week on an extremely bearish note closing below 5300 levels on Monday's trade but managed to bounce back and spend the rest of the week broadly within Monday's bear candle's range of 5450-5268 levels. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continues to remain net buyers in the cash market taking total for 2012 to more then 33,000 crores (till March 1), as per provisional d! ata from the stock exchanges.
  • The BSE benchmark Sensex was down by 286.77 points or 1.60% for the week to settle at 17,636.80 levels
  • The NSE Nifty ended at 5359.35 levels, down by 69.95 points or 1.30%. ACC, Ambuja, Maruti, Sterlite, and Reliance Infra were the major gainers in the index where as DLF, Infosys Technology, TCS, Wipro and Sesa Goa were the major draggers in the index during the last week trade
  • India's economy grew at its slowest pace in more than two years during the final months of 2011 as high interest rates and booming input costs hampered manufacturing activity. Gross domestic product grew at an annual 6.1% in the quarter to end-December, versus Reuter's poll of 6.4%. It is a significant slowdown from 6.9% in the previous quarter and marks the fourth straight quarter of growth below 8%
  • During the week, govt. disinvested 5% in ONGC and raised ~ 12500 crore
  • Core sector growth for the month of January fell to 0.5% dashing hopes for a quick recovery in Industrial production. The sharp drop in the growth was due to a 2.9% contraction in steel output, 2% drop in crude oil output, 8.9% fall in natural gas and 4.6% decline in refinery products
  • India's exports grew 10.1% in January at $25.34 billion, while imports rose 20.25% at $40.1 billion. Trade deficit for the month of January 2012 was $14.76 billion
  • Nymex crude closed at US$ 109/ barrel declining 0.84% on a weekly basis (As on Thursday)

Week Ahead - US data for factory orders is the key data to watch globally
The index is seen trading in a range after the sudden decline from recent highs (5630). At the current juncture, it is struggling for direction ahead of the action packed events lined up over the next two weeks, which are the UP election results on March 6, 2012, RBI's monetary policy on March 15, 2012 and the Union Budget on March 16, 2012.
  • Nifty on the higher side has immediate resistance at 5450 levels which is the previous week high and also the 50% retracement level of the last two week fall
  • A show of strength above 5450 will infuse momentum for a re-test of the recent highs
  • On the flip side, failure to march above the said resistance area could see the index venture into a sideways consolidation mode
  • During such consolidation, an important support zone can be identified in the region of 5230-5170, the 38.2% retracement of the January-February rally (4588-5630) and 200 day moving average, respectively
  • In February 2012, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of 25212 crore while MFs were net sellers to the tune of 2717 crore
  • Key data to watch globally would be US data for factory orders, MBA mortgage application, trade balance, wholesale inventories, Euro zone GDP and ECB rate decision