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Sowmya Sundar

IT was yet another volatile day on the bourses. The Sensex started on a negative note and stabilised during the mid-day trading. However, it crashed 101.20 points or 2.39 per cent at the end of the day to close at 4134.15 points. The trading pattern reflects a steady downtrend throughout the day. BSE PSU and BankEx once again bore the brunt of frantic selling pressure. ONGC, Indian Oil, SBI, Neyveli Lignite, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Corporation Bank slid for yet another day.

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Select stocks such as BPCL and BHEL remained firm while others such as HPCL and Engineers India edged up after a sharp fall. HPCL picked up momentum after losing almost 35 per cent over the week.

Traded volumes dwindled to 13.79 crore shares against 17 crore the day before. Despite the secular downfall across indices, BSE TECk opened on a bullish note and remained volatile throughout but lost steam at the end of the day. The 50-stock Nifty lost 39.3 points to close at 1302.4 points.

Mid-cap pharma stocks have been on a roller coaster ride exhibiting sharp volatility over the past few trading sessions. Cadila Healthcare, Elder Pharma, Glenmark Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma lent to market pressure and dropped sharply while Divi's dipped marginally.

Frontline stocks across sectors such as Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Reliance, ACC and Maruti slid.

Telecommunication stocks, Bharthi Tele Ventures and VSNL bucked the general bearish trend on the market. While Bharthi Tele rose 3 per cent, VSNL edged up marginally.

Freefall continued in Bharat Forge for yet another day. The stock lost Rs 31 to Rs 444 during the day. The stock has lost one-fifth of its value over the last few days after crossing Rs 500 last week.

A few stocks such as Carborundum Universal, EIH, TN Newsprint, L.G Balakrishnan Brothers, Shanthi Gears and Container Corporation ruled firm through out the downtrend in the market. These stocks have shown little sensitivity to the bearish sentiment.

Jay Bharat Maruthi, which hit the upper circuit filter a few days back, edged up marginally in a bearish market. Another stock that was upbeat was MM Forgings. The stock gained Rs 12 to close at Rs 149.

Select software stocks such as Hinduja TMT and KPIT Cummins were other bright spots. Both these stocks registered noticeable gains accompanied by sharp spurts in traded volumes. Geometric Software inched up marginally after it announced that the company ahs received a patent for innovation in its flagship technology. Traded volumes rose three-fold.

Despite the bearish trend in frontline stocks, a number of mid and small cap stocks attracted attention - Bombay Dyeing, Hindustan Dorr Oliver and Mukta Arts to name a few. Bombay Dyeing had announced that it would be considering a buyback. The other two stocks witnessed steady buying interest for the second straight day accompanied by huge rise in volumes.

Fertiliser stocks such as Gujarat Narmada Valley and Gujarat State Fertilizer were upbeat after a steady slide in last few days. Traded volumes increase manifold in both these stocks.

Munjal Auto, Petron Engineering, Maharashtra Seamless, Heritage Foods, Fag Bearing, Sterling Tools were a few other stocks that perked up accompanied by a substantial rise in traded volumes.

Few engineering mid and small caps such as Alfa Laval, Yokogawa Bluestar, Elecon Engineering and K G Khosla moved in the positive direction. The share price of Emami, a cosmetics manufacturer, has been moving up steadily over the whole week. The stock gained over a fifth in value over the week.

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