Sensex closes week with a fall, first in 6 weeks
3 March 2017 6:01 PM GMT
The market's first weekly fall in six months came after the Sensex on Friday stayed on the side of caution despite deep swings as it failed to completely shake off growing concerns about US Fed action later this month.
Investors looked forward to Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen's speech to check for any confirmation on March rate increase.
The Sensex started lower and continued its slide to hit a low of 28,716.21, but across-the-board buying towards the finish line saw it recover most losses to settle down by 7.34 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 28,832.45.
The gauge had lost 145 points in the previous session as investors booked profit after the recent run-up.
On similar lines, the wider NSE Nifty closed down 2.20 points, or 0.02 per cent, at 8,897.55, after shuttling between 8,860.10 and 8,907.10.
On a weekly basis, the BSE Sensex fell 60.52 points, or 0.20 per cent, and the Nifty 41.95 points, or 0.46 per cent, halting a five-week rising streak.
"Q3 of FY17 GDP growth has cleared the demonetisation test. Now, investors are focusing on whether the election results (on March 11) of five states can do the same," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
IPO rush on SME platform; 36 cos line-up plans
Looking to tap into the upbeat investor sentiment, as many as 36 small and medium enterprises have lined up initial public offers (IPOs) to fund business expansion and meet working capital requirements. The companies, which are planning to list on BSE's SME platform, are expected to float IPOs in the coming months.
The exchange has already given go-ahead to 28 SMEs, while another eight have filed their draft offer documents with BSE and are awaiting approval. This is on top of two SMEs having already garnered funds through the initial share-sale plans this year. Listing will help these companies to enter capital markets and finally migrate to the main board platform.
Market analysts said that SMEs list themselves on bourse for easy access to capital, enhanced visibility, growth opportunities, exit route for old shareholders, among others. The companies which have lined up their IPOs include Trine Entertainment, Monarch Apparels (India) Ltd, Shareway Securities, Octaware Technologies, Perry Impex and Western Agro-Tech Innovative.
BSE sets up new corporate announcement filing system
BSE has set up a new corporate announcement filing system (CAFS) to provide speedy, timely and accurate information on listed companies to investors as well as news agencies. The new system, which has been made operational since March 1, will disseminate information round the clock as well as provide a company's filing time and BSE dissemination time for users to verify the minimum delay between reporting and discourse. "Current delay between reports by the company and availability of the information on website varies from two seconds to 10 seconds in most cases and the exchange is trying to improve and reduce the delay to less than two seconds," BSE said in a statement. "By implementation of CAFS, the exchange would be initiating seamless dissemination of corporate announcements without pre-verification by the exchange," it added.
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