MARKETS SIGN OFF THE YEAR WITH 28% GAIN

2017 has been an upbeat year for the markets. The Sensex and Nifty surpassed the 34,000 and 10,500 levels for the first time. The Sensex clocked its best performance in recent years, rising by 7,430.37 (27.91%) in 2017. It had gained 508.92 points (1.94%) last year. The Nifty too rallied 2,344.90 points (28.65%) in 2017. The 30-share key index touched its lifetime high of 34,137.97 on December 27. With this rally Investors became richer by Rs 45.50 lakh crore this year helped by a strong rally in the stock market. Led by the strong show in the stock market, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies soared by Rs 45,50,867 crore to Rs 1,51,73,867 crore (USD 2.3 trillion) this year. Equities rallied on the last trading session of 2017, bringing to close a remarkable year that saw the benchmarks surging past milestones.

"Market surprised the investors with a positive note on the final trading day of 2017. Expectation of a pick up in third quarter earnings and strengthening of rupee supported the sentiment. Focus on upcoming Union Budget and government's reforms will direct investors to turn sector/stock specific. We feel that though the outlook on main indices is moderate in the short to medium-term, the broad market will maintain its vibrancy as businesses flourish,"

- Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services

"The concluding session of the year traded with a positive bias and eventually wrapped up the activity almost at record close. This has been a remarkable year for Indian markets, in fact, we should put it as, for the equity markets across the globe."

- Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking

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Ending the year with positive note

On Friday, the last trading session of the year, 30-share index started the on a strong note at 33,889.39 and hit a high of 34,086.05 before closing at 34,056.83, up by 208.80 points, or 0.62 per cent. It surpassed its previous closing high of 34,010.61 reached on December 26. The broad-based NSE Nifty rose 52.80 points, or 0.50 per cent, to end at 10,530.70 after trading between 10,538.70 and 10,488.65. Both the indices rose for the fourth straight week. The Sensex advanced by 116.53 points, or 0.34 per cent, while the Nifty gained 37.70 points, or 0.35 per cent, during the period.

- Shares of Reliance Communications continued their rally for the fourth straight session today, ending 17 per cent higher after Mukesh Ambani stepped in to bail out the debt- ridden firm by acquiring spectrum, tower, optical fibre network and other assets. In four days, shares of the company have zoomed 122 per cent adding Rs 5,506.76 crore to its market capitalisation.

- In the Sensex kitty, Tata Motors saw the maximum gain of 3.06 per cent, followed by Axis Bank (2.74 per cent), TCS (2.72 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (2.38 per cent), Adani Ports (1.94 per cent), Wipro (1.90 per cent), Asian Paints (1.16 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (1.05 per cent), HDFC Ltd (0.94 per cent), ONGC (0.85 per cent), NTPC (0.83 per cent) and Hindustan Unilever (0.79 per cent).

- Sector-wise, the rally was driven by telecom (up 1.63 per cent), power (1.46 per cent), teck (1.24 per cent), IT (1.20 per cent), auto (1.16 per cent), FMCG (0.85 per cent), consumer durables (0.85 per cent), infrastructure (0.83 per cent), capital goods (0.51 per cent), realty (0.46 per cent), bankex (0.36 per cent) and healthcare (0.18 per cent).

- The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices ended higher by 0.74 per cent and 0.64 per cent, respectively. Trading was thin across global markets on the last session of the year.