The year of Big Bang in stock market

	The Soaring Sensex

Fuelled by a robust performance of Indian stock markets in 2007, which sent a key stock index soaring over 45 percent, Indian companies mobilised a record amount from public offerings during the year, estimated at $8.3 billion. The record mobilisation from capital markets was also facilitated by an equally strong performance of stock markets, with the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange, a benchmark for the performance of Indian equities, rising 46.57 percent during the year, as on Dec 28.

Even though the stock markets faced several tremors mid-year, which had sent the Sensex crashing on many an occasion, the year ended on quite a positive note, as reflected by the handsome gains made by this barometer index.

By mid-May, in fact, when the Sensex was just above the 14,500-point level, market capitalisation at the Mumbai exchange topped the $1 trillion mark.

This translated into a gain of over 6,400 points, or more than 46.6 percent.

The bourse's index for 500 stocks was up 61 percent, while those for 200 and 500 stocks gained over 58 percent each.

NANDIGRAM SHOOTOUT IN BENGAL:

The most talked about issue of the year which pushed the leftists on back foot was the violence in Nandigram village. Several villagers lost their lives in police firing when they were protesting against the Special Economic Zone. The West Bengal government had declared that land for Sez and acquiring the same when protest stated. The issue was later supported by nationwide social activists and witnessed a great protest across the nation. Later, the Calcutta High Court ordered the government to compensate the victims and observed that action taken by government was unconstitutional. The court had also ordered CBI to probe into the matter.