Market snaps five-week rally; Sensex, Nifty tank 3%

A string of negative factors weighed heavily on the market as both benchmark indices, S&P Sensex and CNX Nifty, came off their nearly 30-month highs and tumbled 2.9% and 3.3% respectively during the week under review, snapping a five-week rally.

Profit booking at higher levels, mainly impacted by dismal earnings data from some of the frontline companies, and weak global cues also put pressure on the market.

The comments from Federal Reserve Chairman on possible scale down in US monetary stimulus programme sent jitters across the global stock markets, including India, on Thursday. Weak manufacturing data from China, world's second-largest economy, also aided the fall in domestic shares.

The slump was also attributed to the drop in Q4 earnings of top corpoates like L&T and State Bank of India.

The week saw across-the-board hectic selling mainly in realty, capital goods, power, refinery, PSUs, pharma and banking sectors.

Selling was so strong and widespread that 12 of the 13 sectoral indices ended in the red, losing between 11.54% and 0.34%. Only BSE-IT index ended with gains.

On first day of the week, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share benchmark index touched a high of 20,443.62. But it later started losing ground and declined to a low of 19,568.49 before settling the week at 19,704.33, posting a net fall of 581.79, or 2.87%.

In one of the biggest gaining string of the current calender year, the Sensex, in the last five weeks, had zoomed by a whopping 2,043.56 points, or 11.20%.

The broad-based 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE tanked by 203.75 points, or 3.29%, to close the week at 5,983.55.