IT, financial stocks help Nifty50 log second straight weekly gain

Steps announced by BSE to curb excessive movement in smaller stocks bruised hundreds of midcap and smallcap stocks. But later the bourse's clarification that the restrictions will be limited to 31 stocks for now provided some relief to the segment.

The Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices fell 1.24 percent and 2.20 percent for the week respectively.

Among NSE's sectoral gauges, the Nifty IT, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank indices rose the most. The IT and banking indices gained 4.39 percent and 1.01 percent for the week respectively.

On the other hand, pharmaceutical, healthcare, PSU bank and real estate saw selling pressure. The Nifty Pharma and Nifty PSU Bank barometers slumped 3.23 percent and 2.24 percent for the week respectively.

Macroeconomic data indicating cooling inflation and a pickup in industrial production supported market sentiment, say analysts.

"With positive economic data pointing towards economic recovery, the market is expected to remain bullish in the long term while the possibility of a short correction in the near-term cannot be ruled out," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

In the Nifty50 universe, 27 stocks logged weekly gains. Top performers this week were Tech Mahindra (closing 9.39 percent higher), HCL Tech (7.05 percent), Power Grid (5.51 percent), Bharti Airtel (4.66 percent), TCS (4.42 percent), Infosys (3.86 percent), L&T (3.40 percent), Tata Consumer (3.06 percent) and Wipro (3.01 percent).

On the other hand, Eicher Motors (down 7.37 percent), Shree Cement (6.29 percent), Dr Reddy's (3 percent), Grasim (2.21 percent) and Hero MotoCorp (2.11 percent) were the worst hit among the 23 laggards.

In the midcap space, Tejas Networks, Laxmi Organic, Shriram City, Max Ventures and Jubilant Ingrevia were the top weekly gainers. On the flipside, McLeod Russel, Aurobindo Pharma, Huhtamaki PPL, Sudarshan Chem and Venus Remedies were among the losers.