The penultimate week of the calendar year 2015 ended on a positive note with markets gaining about one a quarter percent. Action continued on a frenzied mode in smallcap and midcap space and the record flows in mutual funds this year also add to the pressure on this segment as funds are flowing into these schemes. The week ahead would see some action on NAV propping as the calendar year ends on Thursday the same day as December futures expire.

The winter session of parliament has ended with hardly any legislative business being done. What little was done was either without debate and discussion and some more was sent to various panels. How long do we citizens have to suffer for the follies of the opposition only time will tell?

The PM in the meanwhile made an unscheduled visit to Pakistan and wished their Prime Minister on his birthday and the marriage of his granddaughter. While there may be certain amount of planning behind the event, it has been hailed internationally as a great step towards improving relations between the two countries. While Congress was lost for words and criticised the move, there response was at best muted and one where they were caught off guard.

The primary market had all the action last week where two new listings stole the limelight. Alkem Laboratories which through a secondary offering had sold shares in a price band of Rs 1020-1050 listed at a price of Rs 1380 and went on to gain further on Friday and closed the week at Rs 1521.75, a gain of Rs 471.85 or 44.93%. The other share to list Dr Lal Pathlabs went a step further and against an issue price of Rs 550 closed the week at Rs 893.65, a gain of Rs 343.65 or 62.48%. This clearly makes Dr Lal’s issue the best debut for the year 2015. The other issue which closed for subscription during the week was Narayana Hrudayalaya which was subscribed 8.70 times overall with QIB portion subscribed 24.43 times, HNI 3.62 and Retail 1.89 times. The response could be said to be muted considering the response to Dr Lal and Alkem Labs.

Finally the delisting of Essar Oil seems to be over with the discovered price at Rs 262.80. The floor price as recommended by the company was under Rs 147. There is still one likely sweetener left as the company has to make public the deal with Rosenoft and offer the higher of the discovered price or the deal price with Roseonoft. We are all aware that the Prime Minister was in Moscow to sign the deal with the Russian counterpart involving this very same company. The difference if any would be paid to those shareholders who have tendered in the delisting and would tender in the window which remains open for one year. People who sell in the market in the intervening period will not the advantage if any.

Volatile times to continue amidst thin volumes.