• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

C. Raja Rajeshwari

THE weakness and the recovery during the trading session on Wednesday in both the benchmark indices — BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty — can only be termed as dramatic.

Opening firm at 4790.50 (up 9 points), the Sensex dipped to 4762 in the first half-hour of trading and then moved sideways till mid afternoon and plunged yet another time to 4738.7 points (down 43 points).

The recovery in the last two and a half hours in the Sensex can be said as dramatic as the index rallied from the day's low to close at 4855.3 points (up 73.2 points).

Click here for table

The broad-based Nifty also fell to 1511.1 points in early trades. The index moved sideways in the first half of trading and further fell to 1504.3 points, from which it climbed to an intra-day high of 1543 points. The index closed higher by 25.9 points at 1537 points.

Though the index heavyweights kept swinging either way, other category stocks were slow to react. Losers pipped gainers on the BSE, with 849 stocks advancing whereas 999 stocks declined. Much of the decline was in the B1 and the B2 category. Major gainers in the market were old economy and PSU stocks.

Strength in PSU stocks such as State Bank of India, Steel Authority of India and ONGC boosted the BSE-PSU index by 20.4 points to 3072.8 points. Gains in PSU banks outshone private banks. Bank of Baroda gained 9.6 per cent to Rs 183.4, Oriental Bank rose 5.2 per cent to Rs 242.6 and SBI 3 per cent to Rs 488.2. Among the private players, Centurion Bank, Federal Bank, Global Trust Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, ING Vysya Bank, J&K Bank and UTI Bank closed the day in the negative territory. Vijaya Bank touched a new 52-week high of Rs 35.75.

Though a few PSUs such as ONGC, BHEL, HPCL, Engineers India and Bharat Electronics gained, stocks such as BPCL, MTNL, National Aluminium, Bharat Earth Movers and Container Corporation turned weak and closed the day in the negative.

Some trading interest in banking stocks spilled over to the other financial institutions too. Dewan Housing Finance Corporation gained 2.41 per cent to Rs 25.20, Can Fin Homes gained 6.21 per cent to Rs 42.75 whereas LIC Housing Finance had a marginal decrease to Rs 180.35. Housing finance major, HDFC gained one per cent to R 530.6

Tech stocks had another gainful day. While tech majors posted only marginal profits, Hexaware Technologies gained 10.7 per cent to Rs 330.7. About 13 lakh shares were traded on the BSE.

Post-announcement of its quarterly results on Tuesday, Indian Hotels declined 5 per cent to Rs 319.9 on Wednesday. Its subsidiary, TajGVK Hotels touched a new 52-week of Rs 94.50 and closed the day a tad lower at Rs 94.25 (up by 4.4 per cent)

LG Balakrishnan Brothers hit the upper circuit filter with a rise of 5 per cent to Rs 277.80. The stock has gained 10 per cent in past three trading days.On the NSE, Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore was the major gainer with a 20.1 per cent increase to Rs 29.3. Other gainers were Hexaware Technologies, LML, Pharmacia and Bharti Televentures.

In the F&O segment, the Nifty futures were the most active. Contracts on Tata Steel and Tata Motors were also much sought after owing to the increase in the underlying stocks. October contracts of both these had a 2-per cent increase in open interest. Though futures on Reliance had lesser volumes than the other two, the open interest rose by 7 per cent.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Tata group cos exempted from open offer for TFL

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line