MUMBAI: The Sensex hit fresh all time closing highs thrice this week and it is turning out to be a jumpy market at these levels. Every strong increment in market strength was pursued by profit booking, as investors preferred to sell at higher levels than hold on for further gains in a highly volatile market.

In an extremely volatile week, the benchmark BSE Sensex took a hit mid week to test the troughs at a 5957 close, but surged the very next day and continued the upswing to end the last day of the week at an all time high of 6119.59 points. The Sensex gained 93 points over the previous Friday's close.

By and large, the media sector moved in line with the markets. The markets in general reflected the various budgetary and market policy changes that marked this week, as did the media sector.

On Wednesday 7 January, the markets moved up smartly in the last 20 minutes of trade on the news that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will introduce margin trading and securities lending scheme in stock markets from 1 February 2004. Arun Kejriwal of Kejriwal Research & Information Services had told indiantelevision.com that this move marks the return of a fortified version of badla trading.

The new scheme would allow Indian corporate brokers with a minimum net worth of Rs 3 crore to run margin trading. Under the new scheme, corporate traders would have to put in an initial 50 per cent of the scrip value to avail of the margins facility while maintenance margins have been set at 40 per cent, subject to exchange requirements. The new scheme would involve stringent disclosure norms and will be reviewed by Sebi every six months. Corporate brokers will be required to make client-wise, scrip-wise and bank-wise gross disclosures.

Foreign institutional investors pumped in a net of $ 246.7 million during the week ended 9 January 2004.

Adding fuel to a volatile but buoyant market on 8 January came the government's announcement of a very positive mini budget ahead of expected vote-on-account and early Lok Sabha elections. The mini budget entails a cut in customs and excise duties on a host of sectors, including non-farm goods, coal, power projects, aviation turbine fuel, electricity meters, cell phones, computer hardware, electrical appliances and bulk drugs. The new rates became effective on 9 January 2004. Direct taxes have also been rationalized. Effective 1 April 2004, workers with income up to Rs 1.5 lakh would not have to file tax returns.

Media stocks witnessed en bloc resurgence on 8 January after a string of weak sessions. But, after Thursday's sharp recovery, on Friday, the media sector again counted more laggards than leaders as investors booked profit at higher levels.

The 4.85 per cent stake sale by Balaji promoters was one of the highlights of the week. Balaji promoters Jeetendra Kapoor and Tusshar Kapoor offloaded 4.85 per cent stake to FIIs bringing down the family's consolidated holding from 57.8 per cent to 52. per cent. The Balaji Telefilms scrip gained 2.22 per cent over previous Friday's close.

The week was also marked by the Crest Communications board finalising a $ 5.8 million GDR. The Crest board of directors sub-committee, in its meeting held on 7 January 2004, approved a 0.75 million GDR issue at a placing price of US$ 7.75 per GDR aggregating to over US$ 5.8 million. The stock had jacked up 10.43 per cent and over one-lakh Crest shares changed hands on the BSE on 8 January. However, the scrip gave up 8.62 per cent on weekly basis.

The Zee scrip managed to gain flavour with the investors early in the week despite the subdued trend of the media sector and hit a new intra day 52-week high of Rs 174.65 on Friday. The stock gained 3.67 per cent on a weekly basis and as Kejriwal had pointed out earlier, the TV Today IPO, which is slated for a debut on the BSE and the NSE on 16 January, is lending colour to the Zee stock.

Manmohan Shetty's Adlabs Films too was among the few media stocks that were bucking the downswing of the media sector. The stock gained 3.5 per cent over the week. Adlabs Films continues to see good investor interest as the multiplex business is thriving and also because Adlabs' processing business is doing well, says Kejriwal. Also, theatres are witnessing a revival as people are flocking to multiplexes in greater numbers now, he added.

On Monday 5 January, the BSE imposed a 10 per cent special margin effective immediately on Hinduja TMT and 133 other scrips on the basis of member-wise gross purchase or sales position (client-wise net). The scrip pared down 3.72 per cent over the week.

Overall, it was an eventful week marked by nerves and policy shifts coupled with a mini budget.