Sensex loses over 2% this week; Metal, Realty, CG hit most

Indian markets ended this week on a dismal note with indices dropping over 2% on the back of weak global cues. Though higher-than-expected, GDP growth data pegged at 5.5% failed to impress the general market sentiment. Investors are awaiting for U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke"s speech. On sectoral front, BSE Metal, Realty and Capital goods plunged the most.The 30-share index, Sensex plunged 402.46 points, or 2.26% to 17,380.75 for the week ended Aug. 31, 2012. On the other hand, the broad based NSE Nifty dropped 128.20 points, or 2.38%, to 5,258.5 during the week. All the sectoral indices at the BSE ended sharply in red except BSE FMCG and Healthcare, which gained 0.87% and 0.71% respectively. Top losers were BSE Metal (7.21%), Realty (5.33%), Capital goods (5.03%), Auto (3.86%), Bankex (3.35%), PSU (2.81%), Power (2.67%), Oil & gas (2.58%), Consumer durables (1.67%), Teck (1.46%) and IT (1.3%). Meanwhile, BSE Midcap and Smallcap declined 1.97% and 2.88% respectively. While commenting on the market outlook, Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, Kotak Securities said, "The market sentiment has been cautious ahead of the Fed meeting at Jackson Hole. If there is no clear signal on the much anticipated QE3, then markets would be disappointed. On the Eurozone front, a fresh concern on Spain has dampened investor sentiment. The ECB meet on September 6 remains an important event as it would give details on its plan to re-launch its government bond buying programme to help fight the region"s economic crisis."

Today the eight consecutive Parliament monsoon session stayed immobilized due to objection and uproar from BJP over coal block allocations. This has once again raised doubts over the timely implementation of the reforms and the main purpose of the Parliamentary meet