Nifty 50 breaks longest streak of weekly losses in 25 years

Domestic equity benchmarks managed mild gains during the trading week ended October 9, with the Nifty 50 adding 98.5 points, or 0.4 per cent -- its first weekly gain after eight back-to-back weekly losses. The 50-blue-chip index also halted its longest spree of weekly losses since 2001, aided by recoveries across IT, FMCG and financial services shares. The Sensex gained 562.6 points, or 0.8 per cent, for the week. On the flipside, sharp losses in pockets such as auto, metal, healthcare and real estate prevented the market from scaling higher levels.

Crude oil stayed above the psychologically important $100 a barrel mark on a closing basis on all five days, broadly see-sawing within the $97-106 range in intraday trade. Foreign institutional investor outflows -- netting a provisional Rs 30,294 crore -- continued to weigh on sentiment, though domestic institutional investors underpinned the rebound by raking in Rs 30,313 crore, according to provisional exchange data. The markets digested the RBI's first rate hike in more than three years, and its shift to a calibrated-tightening stance -- signalling no rate cuts for now, while multi-decadal highs in yields globally continued to keep investors on edge.

Weakness in the rupee added to Dalal Street's overall risk-off tone during the week, highlighting concerns over imported inflation, foreign outflows and higher borrowing costs.

IT stocks shrugged off a mixed quarterly performance by TCS as the country's largest IT services firm kicked off the September quarter earnings season, as analysts assessed a fresh sectoral risk in the form of the Donald Trump 2.0 administration's move to suspend major IT firms -- including the Tata group IT giant -- from its PERM green-card programme.

Broader markets mirrored the headline gains, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices rising 0.5 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively.