The Hindu Business Line : Markets on a high on Day One

THE Year 2004 was welcomed with a bullish undertone in the markets. Leaving behind high intraday volatility, the benchmark indices — the Sensex and the Nifty — opened firm on Thursday and continued the upward trek on a steady foot. This was in contrast to the past two days' behaviour of extreme volatile trading. The bulls started the day with news that the economy has grown by 8.4 per cent in the second quarter (July-September).

The New Year's high was evident in the markets with the major indices trading higher than the previous close level throughout the day, thanks to buying support across board.

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The Sensex closed the day higher by 1.31 per cent at 5915.47 points (up 76.51 points). The Nifty closed at 1912.25 points gaining 1.73 per cent. Major index gainers were Bharti Tele-Ventures, ACC, SBI, HLL and MTNL. Losers who stuck out were Reliance, Hindalco, Bajaj Auto and HDFC Bank.

Not to be left behind by the gains of frontline stocks, the mid cap stocks' index - the CNX Nifty Junior - zoomed by 2.16 per cent to 3479.25 points.

The market breadth was bullish with 1,471 stocks advancing as against 751 stocks declining.

The A and B1 category of stocks in BSE had more advancing stocks than declining ones.

In the B2 category, the advances were at par with declines.

The flavour of Thursday's trading was banking stocks closely followed by PSU and shipping stocks. The BSE Bankex gained about 67.92 points to close at 2866.96 points. SBI gained more than 5 per cent to close at Rs 565.10. The stocks touched a new 52-week high of Rs 566.80 in intraday trades.

UCO Bank and Vijaya Bank led the pack with more than 10 per cent gains. Coupled with huge volumes, UCO Bank closed the day at Rs 22.95 gaining 13.05 per cent. Vijaya Bank closed higher by 11.20 per cent at Rs 46.65. Bank of Baroda bucked the trend closing the day in the negative territory.

Bharti Tele-Ventures zoomed up to Rs 111, gaining 5.61 per cent on back of news that the company has struck a deal with the Escorts group to acquire its majority stake in Escotel Mobile Communications Ltd that offers GSM cellular services in Haryana, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh (West).

Other major gainers in the telecom players were VSNL and MTNL. VSNL gained 6.88 per cent to Rs 157.67 on the back of more than two lakh shares changing hands on Thursday.

The BSE PSU index closed the day higher by 108.74 points at 3964.19 points. The interest in oil stocks fuelled the rise further in this index as they have a higher weightage in the index. IOC and Gail lifted the index to higher levels, each gaining more than 2.5 per cent. HPCL gained 3.03 per cent to close at Rs 450.25.

Container Corporation closed the day in the negative, losing 2.59 per cent to Rs 648.20.

Among shipping stocks, GE Shipping and Shipping Corporation of India closed the day with huge gains.

High volumes were evinced in Steel Authority of India, UCO Bank, Essar Shipping, Indraprastha Gas and SBI.

Notable losers on Thursday's trading were Cummins India, Nicholas Piramal, Crompton Greaves, Alstom Projects and Hexaware Technologies.

On a day of high, jarring the picture was Bannari Amman Sugars, which hit the lower circuit with a 5 per cent decline to Rs 342.10. The stock has been on a decline for the past three days (9.2 per cent decline).

In the F&O segment of the NSE, January futures on Nifty, SBI, Tata Steel and Tata Motors were the most active.