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Sowmya Sundar

THE stock market appears to be gaining ground after a weak-long downtrend. The international markets too are pulling back after the loss in the previous week.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 1.17 per cent to 3116.99 points. Traded volumes, however, remained sober at around 5.48 crore shares. While 796 shares advanced, 269 shares declined on the BSE, indicating a positive undercurrent.

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Index heavyweight Hindustan Lever was one of the major gainers at the BSE. The stock jumped 3.75 per cent pushing the index up.

The NSE S&P CNX Nifty closed 1.53 per cent higher at 999.40. Traded volumes stood at 12.4 crore shares. About 491 shares advanced and 125 shares declined at the NSE.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE-Consumer durables, the BSE-TECk and the BSE-Capital goods were the major gainers. The BSE Consumer Goods gained 3.22 per cent as all the stocks in this basket, barring Amtrax Hitachi moved north. The key gainers in this segment were Philips (6 per cent to Rs 96), Salora International (11.88 per cent to Rs 35.80), Electrolux Kelvinator (9.93 per cent to Rs 7.75) and Titan Industries (1.75 per cent to Rs 52.40).

The star gainers for the day were Bharti Tele-Ventures and Zee Telefilms. Bharti flared up 11.45 per cent to close at Rs 32.60. This could be on the back of the Union Ministry `s decision to allow intra circle mergers and acquisitions in the mobile business last week.

Zee Telefilms jumped 10.22 per cent to Rs 72.25. The company announced thatit would not increase its bouquet price of Rs 55 in the post conditional access system environment, where buyers would have the privilege to pick and chose the channels they watch and pay only for it.

Among the capital goods stocks, BHEL, Bharat Earth Movers and Bharat Electronics were the movers of the day. All three companies declared their results on Tuesday. While BHEL has reported a hefty order book position indicating a good year ahead, both BEML and BEL recorded a good turnover growth for the year 2002-03. BHEL spiked 4.65 per cent to Rs 234.05. Traded volumes, however, slipped. BEML and BEL gained over 5 per cent accompanied by a sharp jump in traded volumes. Alstom Power was back in the buyers list after a brief fall in its price. The stock closed at Rs 50.7 gaining 7.87 per cent.

Mascot Systems announced its entry into the IT-enabled service segment with the acquisition of the contact centre and facility management business of IT&T. Both Mascot Systems and IT&T were upbeat on the bourses. Mascot jumped 8 per cent to close at Rs 104.65 and IT&T gained 9.8 per cent to Rs 17.35.

Moser-Baer continued to remain firm on Wednesday too. The stock has gained 50 per cent in the last one year. On Wednesday, the company launched its branded optical media in the domestic market. The move would not only broaden its product basket, but also move up the value chain in the optical media market in India.

Among the mid-cap stocks, SRF Polymers shot up by 14 per cent to Rs 19.95 on the back of new paper reports that the company is planning to invest Rs 160 crore in a Greenfield plant for polyester. A sharp spike in traded volumes backed the spurt in the share price.

Few other prominent gainers were Hero Honda, Sri Adhikari, Canara Bank, Matrix Laboratories, TV 18 and LML.

Atlas Copco appears to be settling down after a sharp spurt in its share price on the back of a hefty dividend declared by the company. The stock dipped to close at Rs 266.25.

Among the notable losers were JIK Industries, Tata Telecom, Procter & Gamble, Glenmark Pharma, TVS Motor and MRF.

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