Investors started cautious Wednesday, with both Sensex and Nifty languishing in the red for most of the day. It, however, recovered to shoot up into the green, an hour before close, only to give up sizeable gains and end slightly up.

The Sensex shut shop at 15,903.83 points, up 72.85 points or 0.46 percent, while the Nifty closed at 4,694.15 points, 0.29 percent higher.

Thursday saw some heavy selling in frontline stocks in the last trading hour, pulling down the Sensex 389.8 points or 2.45 percent to 15,514.03 points.

Similarly the Nifty shut shop in the red at 4,585.5 points, down 2.31 percent.

The selling continued Friday, as the Sensex closed down 353.79 points or 2.28 percent at 15,160.24 points. The Nifty shut shop in the red at 4,481.4 points, down 2.27 percent.

The top weekly gainers on the Sensex included Reliance Industries (up 2.2 percent), Wipro (up 2 percent) and Hindalco (up 1 percent).

Among top losers were Maruti Suzuki (down 8.6 percent), ITC (down 7.9 percent), Hero Honda (down 7.9 percent), Hindustan Unilever (down 7.5 percent), and DLF (down 7.3 percent).

In other Asian markets, the benchmark index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange touched a 10-month high this week, while European shares rose to a nine-month high Friday.

In the US, stocks rose as the government reported that job losses in July were far less than expected. Key indices like the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard and Poor's 500 closed near their respective 2009-highs Friday.