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Despite the gloom, it seems the benchmark stock market index, the Sensex, could scale beyond the 20,000 points mark by the end of the year.

Even as the festive season sales as well as demand have just started picking up, the benchmark Sensex has been hovering around the 17,000 points mark and many may argue that reaching 3,000 points more could turn out to be an arduous task.

The markets are very choppy (that is, highly volatile) and if it remains so, the bourses could jump, taking only a few trading sessions for the Sensex to touch the 20,000 points mark, like earlier.

Last week ended Friday, the benchmark index had given a glimmer of hope when it wiped out its early losses and ended nearly 67 points higher at 16,933.83 points, extending gains for the third week.

The bourses began the week on a bearish note in the wake of a feeling of worry across global markets as the Euro Zone crisis continues to linger.

What added to the woes of the stock markets was the depressing economic data, which hammered down the Sensex by 2.15 per cent or 315 points on the start of last week, that is, Monday.

The sluggish figures also forced the Sensex to its two-week low of 16,374.68 points on Tuesday.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index traded on a positive note in the remaining part of the week and rose to 17,122.54 points before ending at 16,933.83 points.

Fears over the Euro Zone crisis, it seems, will not be gone for a while.

In fact, the crisis aggravated after European Central Bank’s chief put in his papers owing to differences with the bank’s leadership.

This has brought in a sinking feeling among the global bourses and this sluggishness is likely to stay in the short term.

With the US already being downgraded, there are fears that rating agency Moody’s axe may fall next on French banks as they have bet (invested) substantially on Greece.

If France is downgraded, it would be a major blow to not only Europe but the entire world and Indian bourses could witness a slipper journey, at least in the short term.

The domestic scenario is also full of gloom. The index for industrial production or IIP, or in other words, a measure of industrial output, grew at a slow 3.3 per cent.

During the same period of the previous year, this figure was at a whopping 10 per cent.

This means that the manufacturing sector has been performing abysmally, owing to slow demand.

The later part of the week saw a demand for infotech stocks, which resulted in a sharp rally, prompting the Sensex to end on a positive note.

But the latest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India will further slow demand for cars and homes as prospective buyers will shy away from taking loans.

The Reserve Bank has been on a rate hike spree for quite a while to tame inflation but that hasn’t happened yet.

But the end of the week rally as well as the forthcoming festive season may spur the markets and help the Sensex gain 3,000 points more to end at over 20,000 points by the end of the year and this could help see some of your stocks in the Sensex pack such as Reliance Industries, TCS, or even ONGC, gain over 20-30 per cent within three months, that is, by December-end.