The Hindu Business Line : Bull run paused; Reliance, Infosys gain

THE stock market's relentless bull run was punctuated on Tuesday. After opening on a firm note, the indices scaled higher levels as the day progressed. However, selling pressure towards the close of the trading session pushed the indices into the red.

The BSE Sensex opened at 4,458.64 and went on to touch a high of 4,473.57 points before closing at 4425.2. This represents a decline of about nine points from the previous day's close. The S&P CNX Nifty mirrored a similar trend and closed at 1,407.05 points, down by about 10 points from Monday's close.

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The drop in the share price of old economy heavyweights such as ITC, Tata Steel and Hindustan Lever played a key role in pulling down the indices.

The share price of ITC declined by Rs 21.7 and Hindustan Lever by Rs 3.8.

The damage to the indices was mitigated by the firm trend in Infosys Technologies and Reliance Industries.

The share price of Infosys shot up by about 5.6 per cent to Rs 4,487.25. The report that the company has bagged an order worth $50 million from Australia-based Telstra Corporation appears to have imparted positive market sentiment.

A late recovery in the share price of Reliance Industries too helped the index stage a recovery from the day's low. After dropping to a low of Rs 433, Reliance managed to close at Rs 437.55 towards the close of the day's trading.

Along with Infosys, Bharat Earth Movers, HCL Infosystems and Global Trust Bank were the other top gainers. The share price of Bharat Earth Movers increased by Rs 15.9 to close at Rs 115.7 on reports that the company has bagged orders worth Rs 30 crore for the supply of Railway coaches.

Trading volumes in the counter increased to 22.32 lakh shares from 3.57 lakh shares.

Aided by the strong overnight close at the Nasdaq, quite a few stocks from the technology sector closed on a firm note. The list includes Aftek Infosys, NIIT and SSI.

Of the lot, SSI was a top gainer with an increase of nine per cent.

The stock closed at Rs 138.15 with trading volumes shooting up to 22.34 lakh shares from 17.88 lakh shares recorded the previous day.

Though quite a few technology stocks managed to move up, Satyam Computers was a notable absentee from the gainers list.

The stock declined by 5.6 per cent to close at Rs 246. Trading volumes increased to 92.84 lakh shares from 52.62 lakh shares recorded the previous day.

Apart from Satyam Computer, ABB, Shasun Chemicals, Procter & Gamble, SAIL and were the major losers of the day.

The share price of ABB declined by Rs 23.1 to Rs 485.9. From about 62,019 shares, trading volumes dropped to 29,476 shares on Tuesday.

The share price of Procter & Gamble fell by Rs 21.15 to Rs 593.35. Trading volumes dropped to 33,067 shares from 47,385 shares. The lacklustre performance reported by the company for the year ended June 2003 appears to have affected the market sentiment.

The net profit for the year dropped to Rs 68.04 crore from Rs 77.01 crore recorded in the previous year.

The decision to issue bonus shares in the ratio of 1:2 and the final dividend of Rs 20 per share has been of little consequence during Tuesday's trading.

It was a case of mixed bag as far as the pharma sector was concerned.

While stocks such as Dr Reddy's, Astra Zeneca and Lupin managed to close on a positive note, Pfizer, Shasun and Wyeth Lederle ended the day in the losers list.

After recording a sharp rise in the recent weeks, the share price of Shasun Chemicals dropped by Rs 23.5 to settle at Rs 325.5. There was perceptible decline in trading volumes as well. Close to 60,400 shares were traded on Tuesday as opposed to 1.18 lakh shares transacted the day before.

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