Sensex fall from record highs, drop 371 points for the week

Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex slipped from its five week winning streak, dropping 371.00 points to close at 33,314.56, while the broader fell well-below the psychological 10,400 to finish at 10,321.75.

The volatile trading week saw sustained selling couple of trading sessions, while buying in fundamentally strong stocks somewhat helped to cap larger losses.

The market resumed the week on looming uncertainty on crudeoil price crux following shake-up in Saudi kingdom, but the domestic liquidity flow kept the market afloat, marking new highs before succumbing to uncertainty.

The sudden flare-up in Saudi Arabia were the crown prince cemented his power with anti-graft crackdown triggered volatility in crude rising 3.5 per cent impacting domestic sentiment due to driving worries on inflation and fiscal deficit.

Negatives from USFDA in key Pharma companies pressured sentiment, however, good set of earnings in key corporates spelt gains and two-day GST council meet led the market resorting to consolidation mode.

The outcome of GST Council meet slashing rates in certain sectors consumer durables, auto ancillaries and infra and buying in key frontline shares cushioned the losses.

Opening the week on a higher at 33,710.15 points, the index marked all time high of 33,865.95 and low of 33,108.09, before closing the week at 33,33,314.56, showing a loss of 371.00 points or 1.10 per cent.

The Sensex garnered 2,596.23 points or 8.30 per cent during previous five week session.

The Nifty started the week at 10,431.75 and touched new peak at 10,490.45 and low of 10,254.10. It ended at 10,321.75, down 130.75 points, or by 1.25 per cent.

Profit-booking was led by HealthCare, Oil&Gas, Realty, Power, Metal, PSU, Auto and Banking counters, followed by secondline shares of midcap and smallcap companies shares. While buying was seen in Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, IT, Teck and IPOs.