Bulls went on a rampage sending both the bellwether indices, Sensex and Nifty, to their 32-month high levels during the truncated week under review on heavy capital inflows following better-than-expected US jobs data late last weekend.

The market was closed on 10th September for ‘Ramzan Id’.

Buying was seen across-the-segment with the metal and banking sectors leading the pack on receding fears over chances of a double-dip recession in US after last weekend’s employment data that beat market expectations, and also the price rise on the London Metal Exchange (LMEX).

Surge in index-based stocks RIL, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Sterlite, Jindal Steel, Infosys, TCS, Bharti Air, ACC, BHEL, L&T, HUL, Tata Motor and Maruti mainly contributed to the Sensex surge.

Registering its one of the best weekly gains in absolute term in the current calender year, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer rose 578.23 points, or 3.17 per cent, to end the week at 18,799.66, a level not seen since 18th January 2008 when it had ended at 19,013.70.

The 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also shot up by 160.65 points, or 2.93 per cent, to settle the week at 5,640.05.

Most of the bank counters attracted heavy buying on hopes of higher credit off-take after good monsoon rains.

The main market drivers, foreign institutional investors (FIIs), remained net buyers. They picked up shares worth over Rs 2690 crore in the week, including provisional figures of 9th September.

Sentiment was so strong that on the last trading day the market shrugged off rise in food inflation to 11.47 per cent for the week ended 28th August  from 10.86 per cent in the previous week.

As many as 26 of the 30 index-based stocks ended with gains, while three closed with losses and HDFC held steady.

All sectoral indices settled the week in green with gains between 0.31 per cent and 5.11 per cent. The BSE-Metal index was the top gainer with a rise of 784.90 points, or 5.11 per cent, followed by Bankex 512.72 points, or 4.11 per cent, and BSE-IT index rose 203.69 points, or 3.73 per cent.

Second line counters also attracted good buying. Small and mid-cap indices shot up by 336.61 points and 191.62 points or 3.40 per cent and 2.44 per cent respectively.

Tata Steel was the top gainer from the Sensex pack, rising 9.86 per cent as India’s largest steel maker is reportedly in talks with banks to raise USD 5.5-billion loan to refinance debt at its European unit Corus.

The turnover on BSE and NSE declined to Rs 22,406.38 crore and Rs 59,496.78 crore respectively from the last weekend’s Rs 24,321.79 crore and Rs 63,850.15 crore.