Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jan 30, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jan 30, 2002 |
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Markets
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Commentary Columns - Sensor M&M revs up in flat Dalal Street S. Muralidhar
UNCERTAINTY continued to rule the markets on Tuesday and was amply reflected by the stagnant indices. Volumes continued to be low and except for a few counters. Gains recorded earlier in the day, were later watered down by selling pressure. Tuesday's trading session witnessed a revival of interest in select software (IT) stocks. Movement in the prices of most other stocks was governed by the announcement of results by the respective companies. The fall in share prices of most IT stocks during the past few weeks has been due to the markets discounting the impact of poor performance by companies in this sector. Tuesday's rise in prices of IT stocks was probably due to general expectation of better times for the sector. Following the trend set on Monday's trade, the markets, which sought higher levels at the time of opening, lost ground later in the day on Tuesday too. While the BSE Sensex closed lower by about 4 points, the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) Nifty Index ended the day marginally higher. The Nifty touched a high of 1,076 points, and tested a low of 1,069 points, but closed finally at 1071.65 on Tuesday. The Information Technology (IT) sector was the most active on Tuesday, and the top five most traded scrips on the BSE were all from these sectors. Among the major IT gainers were Mascot Systems, VisualSoft, Wipro, Mastek, Digital Global, and GTL. GTL, which only earlier in the week announced poor results, also edged up to close higher by about 3.5 per cent. Infosys Technologies and Silverline Technologies sought marginally lower levels in Tuesday's trade. NIIT, which announced an 88.4-per cent fall in net profits for the third quarter, faced heavy selling pressure to close the day lower by 3.47 per cent. The other major losers in the IT sector included Trigyn Technologies 7.22 per cent, Ramco Systems, PSI Data Systems and PentaSoft Technologies. The Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) counter witnessed substantial buying during the day and closed higher by 4.91 per cent. Despite announcing a 44-per cent fall in profits for the third quarter, the stock was up, due to a performance, which was better than market expectations. TVS Motors and Tata Engg were the other two major gainers in the automobile sector. They were up about six per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively. However, the modest gains recorded by the other companies in this sector evaporated towards the close of Tuesday's trade. LML and Ashok Leyland were major losers, while the other auto stocks stagnated. Gillette Indiawent up by over 14 per cent after its US parent announced a funds infusion plan that does not involve issue of additional shares or an increase in the Indian company's debt levels. Other gainers were Rayban Sun Optics (after it announced a turnaround for the third quarter), India Cements, Lakshmi Auto, DSP Merrill Lynch, Investment Trust, VSNL, Exide Industries, Vijaya Bank and Bank of India. Other banks and financial institutions were however, seen lower.
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