Despite seeing some weakness at times amid high volatility, Indian stocks fared reasonably well in the week ended 31 March 2017, thanks to the passage of four bills related to the Goods and Services Tax in Parliament. 

There were some stock specific news, like Reliance Industries' telecom arm Reliance Jio's offer, Larsen & Toubro's order wins and Bharti Airtel's stake sale in Bharti Infratel to a consortium of KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and so on.

Short-covering ahead of March series derivatives expiry too contributed to the gains recorded by some front line stocks.

The BSE benchmark Sensex ended the week with a gain of 199.10 points or 0.68% at 29,620.50. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange ended at 9173.75, gaining 65.75 points or 0.72%. Midcap and smallcap stocks fared even better and lifted the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices up by 1.79% and 2.53%, respectively.

The market started the week on a weak note, tracking cues from Asian and European markets and amid uncertainty about U.S. President Donald Trump's economic agenda following his failure to get the healthcare legislation passed. The Sensex ended the session with a loss of about 188 points, while the Nifty50 declined by 62.80 points.

Reliance Industries, which ended the week with a gain of 2.6%, saw some heavy selling on Monday after the market regulator SEBI barred the company and twelve other entities from dealing in equity and derivatives market for one year on alleged fradulent trades in Reliance Petroleum Limited shares during the year 2007. The regulator also directed RIL to pay a fine of Rs 447.27 crore along with 12% interest from November 29, 2007 onwards till the date of payment, within 45 days from the date of order. 

Reliance Industries, in a filing to the stock exchanges, has stated that the trades in RPL shares which were examined by Sebi were genuine and bona fide transactions. It added that these were carried out keeping the best interest of the company and its shareholders, in view. Reliance Industries said that Sebi appears to have misconstrued the true nature of the transactions and imposed unjustifiable sanctions.

Further, Reliance Industries completed its 76% stake sale in GAPCO to Total, through its wholly-owned subsidiary.

A fairly steady trend in global markets amid slightly easing worries about policy uncertainty in the U.S., and optimism about GST roll out from July lifted stock prices on Tuesday. The rupee's continued strength contributed as well to market's firm display. The Sensex gained 172.37 points and the Nifty50 ended 55.60 points up.

Bharti Infratel rose sharply on Tuesday, and despite closing well off the day's high, recorded a gain of nearly 2%. The stock rallied after Bharti Airtel announced that it has sold 10.3% stake in its tower unit Bharti Infratel Ltd to a consortium of funds to raise Rs 6,193.9 crore. KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investments Board are part of the consortium. Post this transaction, the stake held by KKR and CPPIB (combined) will be the single-largest public shareholder block.

On Wednesday, the market traded firm right through the session, despite appearing a bit cautious at times with investors tracking the proceedings in Parliament where the debate on GST was on. The Sensex ended up 121.91 points, while the Nifty50 gaind 43 points.

It was a choppy ride for automobile stocks following the Supreme Court imposing a ban on sale of BS-III vehicles from April 1, 2017. The apex court said that the manufacturers were fully aware of April 1 deadline in advance, adding that public health more important than inventories. The country switches to stricter Bharat Stage IV (BS-1V) emission norms from 1 April, when sale and registration of the more polluting BS-III vehicles will stop.

The market extended its gains on Thursday, as the passage of bills related to the Goods and Services Tax Act in parliament on Wednesday paved the way for implementation of the new indirect tax regime from July 1. The Sensex ended up 115.99 points and the Nifty50 gained about 30 points.

Kotak Mahindra Bank shares were in focus after the bank announced an offer for opening a zero balance savings account, with zero charges for all digital transactions. Coming as it does when SBI and HDFC Bank, among others, are raising transaction charges, the introduction of the paperless savings account called 811 by the Kotak Bank is likely to result in a drop in revenues for payment banks. 

On Friday, save for a few minutes early on in the session and for a brief while around mid afternoon, the market was in negative territory as investors were largely reluctant to build up positions, and instead appeared keen on taking some profits after recent gains. The Sensex ended down by about 27 points, while the Nifty50 ended flat.

Larsen & Toubro gained 1.7% last week. Pharma stock Lupin declined by about 2.6%. Dr Reddy's Laboratories edged up marginally.

Among IT majors, Infosys declined by about 1% and Tata Consultancy Services edged up marginally. Most of the stocks in the IT space, were quite sluggish last week.

NTPC gained more than 1% with news about commissioning of its 260MW Bhadla solar PV project aiding sentiment. Power Grid Corporation gained nearly 2%.

Bank stocks turned in a mixed performance last week. Telecom stock Bharti Airtel gained 2.8%.

In the automobile space, Hero Motocorp declined by 4.5%. During the week, Bahadur Chand Investments (BCIPL), one of the promoters of Hero MotoCorp, raised its holding in the company by picking up 4.45% stake for Rs 2996 crore from another promoter firm in an open market transaction.

On Wednesday (March 29), the Lok Sabha cleared four bills related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) 2017, namely, Integrated GST, Central GST, Union Territory GST and Compensation Bill, thus setting the stage for 28 states, along with Delhi and Puducherry, to enact state laws over the next three months to roll out the new tax regime from July 2017.

A report from Skymet Weather said monsoon 2017 is likely to remain below normal at 95% (with an error margin of +/-5%) of the long period average (LPA) of 887 mm for the four-month period from June to September.