You do not often hear of six per cent gains on the Sensex in a week's time. But, it was true for the Sensex this week, which rallied from the Union Budget low of 22,500 points to a staggering 24,646 points.

This saw heavy buying through the week, in beaten down names. ICICI Bank, which began the week near Rs 188, closed the week at Rs 223, a jump of nearly 20 per cent. Ditto for State Bank of India and some other PSU banking stocks.

In fact, Gyan Sangam meet on how to address the problems of NPAs, also saw PSU banking stocks gaining. The rupee strengthened strongly against the dollar, which gave rise to further gains in stocks. The rupee's rally was largely on the back of the government deciding to adhere to fiscal deficit target in the Union Budget.

Global cues were also extremely strong this week with the US indices closing with gains of 3%. After this stupendous rally, one might see the markets grinding in a tight range. So, it is right to say that the markets may now consolidate in the early part of next week.

Much would depend on how global cues pan out. The US jobs data on Friday was rather strong raising the prospects of further gains for global markets on Monday.

Most of Europe too closed strongly, which could have an impact when trading resumed in the Indian markets on Tuesday. The markets are closed on Monday for a public holiday.

GoodReturns.in